Human Nature

I find it difficult to accept this notion that it's simply human nature. 

Like selective outrage.  Get angry at the easily bullied for the very things the more easily liked people do but dismiss those actions from the easily liked because you, we, want to be liked, too.  It's easy to pile on.  It doesn't take much effort to throw stones at those unable to throw stones back.  Glass houses never have mirrors because you, we, don't like who we see.

I find human nature to be simplistic despite its self-ascribed complex spirit.  Oh sure, we are all unique snowflakes drifting aimlessly onto some winter landscape only to settle on the beaten ground and yes, we are all animals with free will and our own identities as witnessed by our own patented thumbprints but when the winter ends, it is, we, snowflakes that simply become nothing more than a relic from the past.

It's human nature to get angry when we feel wronged or slighted or ignored.  The lion when kicked out of his pride does not seek revenge.  He seeks to recapture what he perceived was his or he seeks a new pride to reign over.  Lions are proud, respectfully so, but ego does not play a part in their instinctive actions. 

Humans have monopolized ego.

It's human nature to mourn for those we have lost.  The grieving process is a lifelong struggle unlike animals where it's simply an event.  When the lioness loses her cubs, she does not wallow in self-pity.  By next spring, she will be nurturing a new litter. 

I find it difficult to accept that human nature is a fair explanation for all the crimes we commit. 

Like selective sympathy.  We shake our fists at the whalers as we suckle on a porterhouse steak.  Cows are stupid, we tell ourselves.  It makes us feel just.

It's human nature to sacrifice integrity for the sake of ideology.

Where are all the anti-war protestors from six years ago? 

Children never pick sides.  They will never willingly wear a button telling us which party to vote for.  Children don't have opinions on gay marriage or healthcare or government spending.  They are clean slates until we indoctrinate them.

It's human nature to want clones of ourselves.  Fathers pass on their first names to their first born sons.  Parents teaching children which God to believe in and which party to vote for.  The lion teaches her cubs how to hunt, how to survive.  Humans teach children what to believe.

What if I told you we are on the brink of extinction?  What if I proved that everything we have been told is just a lie?  What if I said that another Civil War is inevitable?  What if I predicted a nationwide blackout where nobody has electricity?  It would be human nature to dismiss me because nobody can fathom those things they have not experienced. 

It's human nature to think in contemporary terms.  Tell a 14 year old child the internet once never existed and he will ask, "what did you do for fun? how did you learn?"   He will have a difficult time believing a world could exist without a computer.

Tell an atheist the story of Jesus and he will laugh because it's illogical to him yet he will believe that Napoleon tried to conquer the world simply because his history books tell him its true.  Tell the same atheist that aliens don't exist and he just might argue that indeed they do. 

Selective logic is the nature of being human.

It's human nature to shed a tear at another one's misfortune.  It is we who are willing to dig into our own pockets when someone is in need.  The lion doesn't share the meal that he killed.  He will leave the scraps for the hungry once he is full.

Humans have monopolized empathy.

I find it difficult to accept this notion that good and evil can be simply diagnosed as human nature.

If we are indeed unique snowflakes with our own patented thumbprints drifting aimlessly onto a winter landscape, then nothing, we humans do, can be characterized as natural.