Just plain blues

While having my afternoon coffee, I caught part of a history show about Nero. Everybody knows what a no-account, worthless, ruthless, most likely crazy ruler he was. Or was he? That was the tenor and thesis of the show. Maybe the poor guy got a bum deal. Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't.

Personally, I don't think it matters all that much. After all, it was 2,000 years ago, and nothing in the interim is going to change if it turned out that it wasn't quite like we all thought it was. In the end, he was just another person in charge who didn't do things quite as he was expected to do, and a whole lot of people managed to find a whole lot of fault with what he was doing. Same song, different verse; same play, different actors. You would think that history consisted solely of the lives of these individuals.

Here's a city of probably around 1,000,000 people, and only a handful matter. What's that all about? Oh, sure, most of us will go through life not leaving any real mark, but does that mean we're lesser persons because of it? Well, if you accept the conventional wisdom, the "values" that we were taught in school, if you accept the usual portrayal of how things have gone down, you end up with only one answer: yes, we are lesser persons. In fact, we're really worth nothing at all. To some, we're simply worthless.

Isn't that a sad state of affairs after, what, 10,000 years of recorded human history? A handful in Nero's Rome, let it be two handfuls. 10 people compared to 1,000,000 ... a mere 0.001%. If you pay any attention to the news, if you have even the slightest familiarity with current debates about taxation and income distribution and wealth inequality, that shouldn't be that unfamiliar a number. A whole two millennia of human striving and what do we have to show for it? Not a thing. Absolutely nothing at all.

That's a pretty sad balance, if you ask me. I suppose we could read a lot into it if we wanted to, but for me, it simply says that for as big as our brains are and as many evolutionary advantages that this mere fact is supposed to bring, either the theory is wrong (which it probably is) or it's really a matter of size not mattering at all.

We do know, however, that because our brains are the size they are and are constructed the way they are, we have potentials that other animals, don't have. Whereas most animals operate purely instinctively most of the time, the exceptions where care, concern, and altruism appear to be in play are still quite rare, though I, for one, am quite happy they are there at all. But, we humans, more than any other species, all have the potential for empathy, for simply caring about others, but in more than 10,000 years, and quite evidently in the past 2,000, we've left that potential as good as undeveloped.

And we're so proud of ourselves. I just don't know why.

Wandering and wondering

Some people think I'm a pretty smart cookie. There are others, however, who think I'm pretty much of a jerk, idiot, know-it-all, and loud-mouth. I can't help but think that the latter group is being more emotional than rational, but, hey, as my friend Julius Caesar used to say, de gustibus non disputandum. You can't please all the people all of the time, so you have to settle for maybe pleasing anyone at any time. I'm not always successful, but I'm still trying.

What gets me -- and it's been getting me for I can't tell you how long -- is how little progress we are making as a species. I'm actually very impressed by the intelligence of some people, by their brightness, their insight, their understanding, the scope and depth of their knowledge ... well, you know what I mean. Of course, I only have to turn on the news any evening to be reminded how foul, ignorant, simple-minded, self-centered, cruel, and inhumane we, as a species again, can be as well.

Oh, sure, we've accomplished a lot, I suppose. We've come a long way since the control of fire and the wheel, and most of our so-called advances have been in technical areas. We can create all kinds of new materials and applications, and scientifically, we know a lot more than we once did. We've penetrated into the secrets of matter and we can cure diseases and provide healthcare in ways that our forebears couldn't even imagine. But, in spite of all of this, I can't see that we've really come all that far in two primary areas: interpersonal relationships and war.

That's an odd couple, to be sure, but let's face it. Just about every technical and scientific advancement we have ever made, we have made because it made killing more efficient. No, I'm serious, give it some serious thought. Even great thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci -- whose art is at times downright inspiring -- spent a lot of time thinking up war machines as well. A contradiction, or simply a fact of human nature? Personally, I think it is the former. As for interpersonal relationships, there is no species on earth that can hate like humans. And, it's frightening to think of how often we do it. The slightest bit of difference can set it off, too. It doesn't have to be a different culture, a different religion ... no a different skin color can still do it for lots of folks, and when you get right down to it, simply rooting for another sports team can do the trick for others.

What's important to keep in mind, though, is that we know -- all of us know -- that it doesn't have to be this way. There is nothing that compels us to hate. There is nothing that compels us to wage war. (And for those of you who get all irate about self-defense, ask yourself how often this was really justified since WW2.) No, the more I think about it, the more it seems clear to me that we, as a species, are simply not living up to our potential. We're not being all that we can be. But, I can't figure out why.

It simply boggles the mind at how little human progress we have made.

The dumps

After re-reading the last sentence of my last post, I realized I'm pretty much down in the dumps again. It's too easy to get depressed. Maybe I just shouldn't sweat the little things.

Depending on who you talk to (and I'm not counting Creationists here, they don't know, they can only believe, and I don't have time for that particular kind of nonsense, though ceteris paribus what I'm thinking right now would include their "arguments" anyhow) there have been humans on earth now for a few hundred thousand years. Yes, if you consider our hominoid forebears we can maybe stretch that back to a million or more years, but that only makes matters worse, not better.

What am I talking about? It's simple really: how dumb are we, actually, as a species?

Really. Yes, I know how lots of folks like to go about all our "progress" and technological advances and that we were on the moon and we've decoded the human genome, and ... well, I'm sure you get the picture, but none of that really answers the question. Yes, we've developed what appear to be some very sophisticated tools, and we can accomplish some clever tricks, but what have we really learned? Are we any "better", whatever that may mean, as a species. Is the world a "better" (same qualifications apply) because of us?

And that's where I'm not getting those good positive vibes. I'm not sure we've accomplished much at all.

We're close to having irreversibly destroyed the climate. We've polluted and have as good as irreparably damaged every environment we've settled in. We can't solve the simplest interpersonal problems without raping, killing, maiming, pillaging, and plundering (or at least thinking of them). We're emotionally unstable. We're pretty handy and making weapons, but are hopeless when it comes making a home or ends meet. We are hands down the most selfish creatures that have ever existed, and when it comes to others -- and I mean that in it's simplest sense: someone not us ... people from other towns, regions, countries, cultures, religions, etc. -- we most often display and arrogance and cruelty that would make baboons blush, if they were capable of doing so.

Most importantly, we are the only creature on earth that knows of evil. And committing it, is apparently what we do best of all.

I'm sorry. I'm missing the "better" part ... still.