Human nature

Optimism alone cannot save us.

I often ponder about human nature and history. And how human nature, with its short span of evolution, influences history. It is an invisible force, working with an insidious tenacity, manipulating and forming causality around it.

Studying history and looking at the big events that were recorded, we always ask ourselves why certain civilisations fell. We try to dissect the causes and the effects of a number of variables that combined led to a certain outcome. We never factor human nature as we say it is too insignificant to touch something of large scale.

At the same time, we observe that sometimes even one person can change the course of history. I do not believe that is the case. As ultimately underneath all that, it is human nature and it’s predictability that more often than not influences and shapes the things we read in the history books.

We also ask why haven’t our predecessors understood the road they were taking and its potential destination. It is a question that we are asking ourselves too many times, in too many contexts. For we are limited in what we see and understand while the events are unfolding around us. And this is where human nature plays a significant part.

We have not evolved yet to see past our immediate needs. We do not extend that to our offsprings, no matter how much we say we do. We continue to be driven by what makes us happy, by what satisfies our needs, by our desires. We are selfish, we never think beyond the immediate “ME”. And that is how history unfolds around us… and we are oblivious to it, oblivious to the road and oblivious to the destination.

So what is human nature? I often find myself predicting a way a person would act, think or behave. And all of that is based on human nature at the centre of what drives a person. As we are all wired in very similar ways, we tend to act in similar ways if put under pressure or without overlapping our rational and logical layer. And a lot of people act in this way, creating a critical mass that shapes our history. And hence we have human nature at the core of history going wrong and at the same time in this endless cycle of repetition.

I think we are running out of time… There is not enough of it to allow us to evolve. We have grown destructive means around us, we are touching the world around us in significant ways. It doesn’t give us room and we are stuck in a do or die situation. I pray that we get in the DO boat, before we get in the drown one.