The quality of trust in human nature worth building is synonymous with the trust you should have in physics or chemistry. And I really mean should. You may not like the truth of gravity or gun powder, for example, but when you understand the rules that govern them and how they work, then the reliability of the truth about them will prompt you to be careful when working from a tall ladder or handling a firearm. Denying the truth of gravity or gun powder will put you at a disadvantage and invite serious harm or death. Understanding them gives you the advantage and helps keep you safe. Living a long and healthy life using the former requires a whole lot of luck. The latter, not so much.
As with physics and chemistry, there are undeniable truths to what makes us human. This isn't to say we know all the truths to human nature. Far from it. Even so, for what we do know, there are people - many people - who steadfastly refuse to accept these truths and expend great effort to maintain a near-impenetrable wall of denial against these truths. But such performative efforts and luxury beliefs do nothing to change the underlying truths to human nature.
A person is better positioned to live a ready life when they understand that people will behave in certain ways under certain situations, regardless of prevailing laws or personal declarations to the contrary. When pushed to the edge, normally civil people will kill to gain access to food and water. To do otherwise requires a significantly developed strength of character. Such people are likely to be found among the remnants. The accounts of Nazi concentration survivors Viktor Frankl and Primo Levi serve as tragically stark examples of the character strength I'm referring to.
People will behave similarly, if not to such an extreme, if the food and water are symbolic. I've witnessed (and been caught in) too many corporate turf wars over such mundane things as who got what office furniture or control over how many employees. Though they were fought short of drawing blood, there were innocent victims nonetheless - sometimes employees, but more often customers.
Before we can trust human nature, we must understand human nature as best we can. The more we understand, the more we can trust. Our understanding must be based on the best evidence possible. This is where the principle challenge lies. You will have to dig for the evidence. The evidence needs to come from as close to the source as possible. And the source must be based on the best empirical evidence available. If it isn't, it's just a hypothesis (at best), an opinion (to be charitable), or a lie (most likely.)
The first rule to understanding human nature is that you can never completely understand human nature. This means that when you commit to studying human nature, you commit to being an unrelenting student for life. We can only work to understand human nature a little better each day. It's constantly evolving on the edges, constantly revealing little bits and pieces of itself at unexpected times, in unexpected places, and under unexpected conditions. But there are several core truths that can be relied on.
Most days you will feel baffled or overwhelmed by the awareness of knowing what you don't know while trying to assimilate and integrate the lessons of the moment. You will need unbounded curiosity to carry you through endless cycles of learning, unlearning, relearning, and reintegration. Even so, with increasing frequency you will see with a clarity unavailable to the vast majority of human rabble. You will see to the horizon and recognize approaching storms, enabling you to step away from the path of approaching mayhem and destruction. You will begin to live ready.
"Trust in Human Nature" last updated on 2024.11.05.
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