this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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If it's in our "nature" how is it that the vast majority of us are not doing it?
If we look at early human societies they were mostly relatively egalitarian and peaceful. The Hobbesian view of humanity is very useful to make you accept the unacceptable.
It's not in the nature of the majority of individuals, but it's definitely there in the nature of our species. It's due to the odd nature of statistics. 100% of us will never be peaceful. There will always be a minority - possibly less than 1% that has bloodlust. Unfortunately, that minority is good at playing with the emotions of the rest (this is the speciality of sociopaths) and leading the entire tribe to needless bloodshed.
I agree the variety in humans means we have a small percentage who differ.
What I'm objecting to is the normalization of abberant behaviour as "oh that's just something we do." It's not something most of us do.
When someone comes along like Jimmy Saville people don't say oh, large scale pedophilia is just human nature.
We quite rightly view it as abberant and our focus is on seeking to put a stop to it. The same thing should happen with things like genocide and ethnic cleansing.
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Let’s not forget that the Leviathan was the justification for the divine right of kings over democratic systems.