Will Man’s “Superiority” Be This Ultimate Undoing?
By Lasantha Pethiyagoda –October 21, 2016
Lasantha Pethiyagoda
A long time ago, our ancestors were insignificant animals that roamed the Earth alongside other animals. Prehistoric humans were unimportant, but today in contrast, we think we control this planet.
In everything we do, we act with a sense of superiority to other animals, although our “Human-ness” is questionable in terms of superiority. Furthermore, we fail individually in our survival skills if we only had nature at our disposal, in contrast to a wild animal which will generally succeed.
Humans have succeeded only when acting collectively towards outcomes determined by themselves, rather than dictated by natural needs. In contrast, social animals succeed collectively only in their rigidly predetermined roles, and lack the capacity to chart optional paths, although ingenuity in achieving naturally determined outcomes do exist.
In stark contrast, modern humans can collectively achieve marvelous results with the ability to cooperate flexibly through sophisticated communication networks. For this, unlike for animals, humans do not need any intimate knowledge of all their cooperating partners. Humans therefore easily control much of the world.
Through this capacity to communicate, we are able to manufacture technology, go to war and create industries based on needs that are planted in the human mind through mass communication. Thus, humans manage to cultivate powerful fictions that are based on the imagination.
We develop morals, principles and belief systems based on the delicate manipulation of our thinking minds and biological dictates. So, millions of humans across vast tracts of land start adhering to what they believe to be correct, true or beneficial.
It naturally follows, that as long as everybody believes in the same set of ideas, everybody obeys and follows the same rules, the same norms, the same values that define the set of beliefs.
As mentioned earlier, humans communicate not just to describe their perceived realities such as anger, hunger, love or frustration but to entice others to cooperate in an ideal or norm that has been created specifically for control.
Religious beliefs are one of the most obvious outcomes of this creation of an ideal and the conditioning of the mind in its pursuit. Lesser beliefs can include a dream home, a certain qualification or achievement etc that promises benefits. Whereas in the material world we often realise the benefits, the afterlife is a completely different notion altogether, where realization can never be proven or demonstrated.
