Human Nature: the dangerous enemy

 "Terrorists are masters of mind control. They kill very few people, but nevertheless mange to terrify billions and shake political structures such as the European Union or the United States. Since 11 September 2001, every year terrorists have killed about fifty people in the European Union, about ten people in the USA, about seven people in China and up to 25,000 people globally (mostly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria). In contrast, each year traffic accidents kill about 80,000 Europeans, 40,000 Americans, 270,000 Chinese and 1.25 million people altogether. Diabetes and higher sugar levels kill up to 3.5 million people annually, while air pollution kills about 7 million people. So why do we fear terrorism more than sugar, and why do governments lose elections because of sporadic terror attacks but not because of chronic air pollution?” (Harari, Yuval Noah, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, 2019, Vintage, p.187. My note: the above figures don’t include data up to 2025).

There may be many answers to Harai’s question. It could be argued that the increased money spent on security has made it harder for the terrorists to achieve their violent aims. This is obviously a good thing. However, governments still don't spend anywhere near these amounts on social health and wellbeing, education, raising people out of poverty or strengthening communities, reversing climate change, ameliorating rampant consumerism, to name some serious existential issues.

What’s going on in humanity's mind that seems to make these tasks so difficult? Perhaps it’s not the human mind that’s the problem. Perhaps it’s the human heart. Or, at least, our over-reliance on it at the expense of our mind.

Relationships fail not because we don’t have our hearts in them but because we let ourselves be taken over by someone else’s heart. We let ourselves become enmeshed in our partner’s needs. As a consequence, we lose ourselves and each other.

Conflict occurs and worsens not because we think it's logical and worthwhile for us, something good, but because we allow our political selves to become entwined with the worldview of others that somehow makes us feel better. We let fear, our past experiences, external expectations guide us.

While we might take issue with Harari’s implied assertion that car accidents are worse than terrorism, it seems clear that human nature itself is at the root of our struggle to find harmony, peace and stability, not the scarcity of money and resources.

Pope Francis is dead. Billions of people mourned. Without doubt, he was a special human being. Commentators spoke about his lasting legacy. 

However, given that human nature hasn’t changed over the eons, I wonder what the real impact on the world that legacy will have. Will there be fewer car accidents, fewer regional conflicts, more trustworthy institutions, greater numbers of the poor finding a dignified life? I don’t know.

Unless we stand back and radically accept that our nature is to find the lowest common denominator, to find the easiest path, to avoid discomfort, to always serve the self before the other without any sense of balance, we will continue to fight, ignore, rationalise, victimise, lie, sleepwalk, turn away, blindly trust our hearts over our minds.

Humanity is its own worst enemy. No other species can say this about itself.