Surviving Human Nature

A book about human nature and the challenges all humans face in the 21st Century.
By Stephen Gislason. 2010 edition, available in printed format from Alpha Online and as a PDF file download from Persona Digital. Read some of the topics online and order the book using the links below.

Preface

In this book, I review the most urgent problems that all humans share.

I suggest solutions based on a current and detailed understanding of human nature. I realize that all the issues I discuss are complex. My goal is to harvest some of the best ideas from a voluminous literature and present these ideas with insights into human biology and human history. I am examining the negative features of humans without relinquishing hope. I am naturally optimistic and I have enjoyed a privileged life. At the same time, I am well informed and not afraid to confront the negative aspects of my nature and human nature in general.

Optimists look forward to continuing social progress in the 21st century. The hope is that rapidly regenerating social and economic problems are solvable by improving policy and allocating money to programs. One hope is that inspired politicians will be elected to office and will, by some administrative magic, do better than previously elected administrators. However, meaningful political changes emerge slowly and are built from the bottom up rather than imposed from the top down. A civil society is built from many constructive organizations that thrive in local communities. Citizens of the 21st century can be quite sure that top-down solutions will not work and the tendency toward centralized political and economic control will need to be modified or abandoned. The realist will recognize that "social progress" is not a progression of rational responses to problems, proceeding toward some ultimate solution for human deficiencies and aberrations.

Close by, I am aware of a society that is self-indulgent and often unrealistic. Canada is often viewed as a peaceful country with an enviable quality of life. This is an overview that averages the good and bad features of Canadian life. Becoming a Canadian does not change the critically disputatious nature of the country’s human citizens. There are deep dialectics in the human mind with constant battles between optimism and pessimism, suspicion and trust, approach and avoidance. There is also a deep narcissism in each human, based on the conviction that “I am the center of the universe”

A Better Understanding

Human groups are preoccupied with real and imaginary threats from enemies and spend much of their time and resources defending against and attacking enemies. The view that the good and the bad are products of culture is now yielding to the deeper insight that the dialectical nature of the human mind is built in. This innate dialectic generates culture not the other way around.

In this 21st century, a more realistic philosophy of human life should emerge as we recognize that it is impossible to permanently change human nature by social and political means - by education, persuasion, coercion and law. 

Humans require regulation using a system of rules that are an external form of behavior coding. External regulation can evolve and improve by creating and maintaining stable social and political structures in a democratic infrastructure. Democracies are, however, unstable and vulnerable to internal dissolution as much as external attack. Democracies require elaborate internal rules and surveillance to prevent subgroups from achieving control over critical functions such as the money supply, police, courts and military forces. Subgroups are always competing for resources and control so that no civil society can be considered stable and enduring without an energetic and educated population of activists who are prepared to defend freedoms and privileges on a daily basis.

Smart people can break through old paradigms and recognize patterns in human nature. This is happening all the time. Good, new ideas always impress me and I always ask -why didn't I think of that?  A new, good idea can spread from person to person and can make people smarter and more effective in the world. A good idea may seem obvious once you understand and accept it, but before someone comes up with the idea, you are ignorant. Humans who do not have access to new ideas and learn only a few of the old, worn-out and bad ideas are stuck with being ignorant.

Stephen Gislason

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Surviving Human Nature

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Surviving Human Nature is published by Persona Digital Books. All rights to reproduction by any means are reserved. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Surviving Human Nature  published online and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason. The date of publication is 2010.The URL to the book description is http://www.personadigital.net/Persona/Survival/