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Old 06-01-2020, 08:59 AM
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Arrow What does it mean to be human?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN?
By: Stephan Harding - Center for Human & Nature
Re: https://www.humansandnature.org/to-b...tephan-harding

We humans are an exceptional species in at least two respects. We have access to several levels or modes of consciousness, and we have immense freedom of choice—we can decide to make all sorts of complex things happen in the physical world that change it irreversibly, often for the worse. These two aspects our being—our levels of consciousness and our freedom of choice—have, over the past few centuries, intersected in mostly unfortunate ways that have produced immense damage to our planet while also giving us tremendous short-term benefits. I think that we will only heal this damage through an immense effort to exercise these two aspects of our being human with the greatest degree of awareness and responsibility. Doing so will open up new possibilities for living more fully as human beings.

The experiences of meditators and contemplatives over the centuries and, more recently, of Western psychologists such as Jung and Hillman have shown us that we operate from two fundamental (and interrelated) levels or modes of consciousness: what we might call a limited, shallow, self-centered level of consciousness, and an expansive, deep/wide, ecocentric level of consciousness. The first is the everyday mind of our common experience in which it seems to us that we are nothing more than isolated, solidly existing “selves” that we must protect at all costs from a hostile world. In this mode, our main priority is the safeguarding of own comfort and well-being, often attained to the detriment of those around us and of the living world that enfolds us, to which we are mostly indifferent. This self-centered state is absolutely natural—without it we would perish—but it becomes dangerous when we are told, as we are in Western civilization, that this is all there is to being human—that even our most altruistic acts can be explained by a reduction to our “selfish” genes and their urge to propel themselves as “units of selection” into future generations.

Our entire modern civilization is built on the cultivation of self-centeredness. We see it everywhere: in the cult of celebrity, in the idea that we can only discover who we truly are by buying the right industrial products at ever-accelerating rates and in the accumulation of more and more material wealth with which to buy these products. When Deng Xiaoping said to his nation that “to be rich is glorious,” he initiated a massive avalanche of selfishness and greed in China that is sweeping the entire planet closer to ecological catastrophe.

We have made highly dangerous choices in using our well-honed capacities for scientific, analytical reasoning in service of our self-centered mode of consciousness. We have chosen to use science to create immensely powerful technologies that have given us the freedom to extract and manipulate wild molecules from the body of the Earth in ways that are creating severe problems for all living beings, including the planet herself. And we seem set on continuing to make these choices despite overwhelming scientific evidence about their detrimental effects. Mere information is not enough to break through our self-centered consciousness, which only intensifies as the economic growth model tightens its grip, strangling our collective imagination. The result is the severe alienation of the human psyche from nature that is increasingly symptomatic of our times.

Experiencing our full humanity requires us to attenuate our self-centeredness by enfolding it within a much wider sense of self in which we experience genuine love and compassion for all beings, both living and non-living. There are many names for this wider, deeper self, which is our deepest level of consciousness. My preference is for Arne Naess’s term ecological self because it suggests that the wider self is not some insubstantial, ethereal intellectualization, but rather deeply rooted in the very materiality of our planet—in its teeming biodiversity, its ancient crumpled continents, its swirling atmosphere, and the depths and shallows of its lakes, rivers, and oceans. Thus, the ecological self is not only the human self—it is also the Self or soul of the world, the anima mundi, that awakens us to our full humanity when we know, palpably, in our very bones, that there is a selfhood far vaster than our own in which we live and have our being, and to which we are ultimately accountable. C.G. Jung succinctly gives us a taste of this when he says that “At times I feel as if I am spread over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons.”

When we are thus “spread over the landscape,” we feel that nature is animate—that it is imbued with intelligence, wisdom, and a communicative ability that make us feel a natural inclination to minimize harm to the greater self that enfolds and nurtures us. From this level of consciousness, we make choices that minimize harm to the greater body of the Earth, which we experience as our own body. We opt for simplicity and frugality in our material consumption and cultivate richness and diversity in our cultural and spiritual lives, where we realize that true satisfaction lies.

Thus, the most pressing challenge for our times is to awaken the ecological selves of as many people as possible within the shortest possible time. It is vitally important to help people to fall in love with the Earth, by whatever peaceful means possible. I am not at all optimistic that we will be able to do this, but we must each do what we can in our own limited spheres of life. Theorizing about our ecological predicament is, at best, only a beginning. A vital practice is to spend time alone, in silence, outdoors in as wild a place as one can find, allowing the sensuous language of nature to dissolve away our civilization’s corrosive notion that nature is no more than a mute, inert machine. Perhaps it might then dawn on us that we are fully human only when we deeply love and respect not only other humans, but also the vast other-than-human world that enfolds and sustains us.

About this writer: Stephan Harding was born in Venezuela in 1953. He came to England at the age of six. Since childhood Dr. Harding has had a deep fascination with the natural world, and his scientific cast of mind lead him to do a degree in Zoology at the University of Durham and then a doctorate on the behavioral ecology of the muntjac deer at Oxford University. Dr. Harding is Resident Ecologist and MSc Coordinator at Schumacher College.

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Personal note: Once again we are just smart animals. If we are so smart why do we kill one another? A human society: it's a group of people who share a common lifestyle and organization. ... Political scientists categorize societies based on political structure into bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.
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Why Peace Is So Tricky for Humans
Re: https://www.livescience.com/20402-hu...evolution.html

Like our close living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, humans are hardwired come into conflict with one another, often violently. Even so, like our ancestors, we also have the capacity to resolve fights; something that one anthropologist says has evolved along with our societies over the millennia.

We still have a way to go, he points out. The current system we have in place for dealing with large-scale conflict — the United Nations — is inadequate, suggests researcher Christopher Boehm who has contributed one of several essays on human conflict published in the May 18 issue of the journal Science.

"The genes are still making us do the same old things, which include quite a bit of conflict. Culture has given us solutions at various levels," said Boehm, of the department of biological sciences and anthropology at the University of Southern California, in a podcast released by the journal Science. "But the world conflict-resolution system still needs quite a bit of work." [The Evolution of Fighting]

While for the most part, national governments are fairly good at coping with internal conflicts, the UN's ability to intervene in conflicts is severely hampered, because, for example, permanent members of its Security Council are able to veto a resolution, he said.

Deep roots

The role of third parties like the UN in resolving conflicts appears to have deep evolutionary roots. The common ancestor for humans, chimpanzees and bonobos appears to have lived in a social dominance hierarchy, a structure that leads to conflict between individuals and groups, Boehm concluded by looking at behaviors shared among the three species today. (Bonobos appear less conflict-prone than chimpanzees and human hunter-gatherers.)

Often, fighting bonobos or chimpanzees will resolve the conflict themselves, but when this doesn't happen, a third party sometimes steps up.

"One way this happens for chimpanzees and occasionally bonobos is simply a power figure threatens the two who are fighting and gets their attention and makes them stop," Boehm said.

To get an idea of how hunter-gatherers living about 45,000 years ago dealt with conflict, Boehm looked to modern hunter-gatherer societies. [The Awá Gallery: Faces of a Hunter-Gatherer Tribe]

While humans at this time retained the capacity for violent conflict shared by their ancestors, the dynamics had changed. Humans had an understanding of death and they had weapons. They temporarily lost the alpha-male role and became more egalitarian, living in small bands; they also became moral, following rules because group values support them, rather than simply out of a fear of power, Boehm writes.

Hunter-gatherers have high rates of homicide, comparable to those of a large modern city, he said. Their egalitarian social structure, however, means there is no strong figure to intervene in fights, so people often try to head off a fight before it starts, he said.

Evolving solutions

But the loose social structure also offers a solution; those involved in conflicts can join a new band far away. This changed in time.

"Our cultural evolution has involved living in much more large and dense populations, and with larger populations come a greater need for command and control at the political center," he said.

Because moving away is no longer an option for them, tribal farmers grant some authority to a chief, allowing him to stop conflicts. Over time, this trend toward centralized power continued, chiefdoms turned into kingdoms, which led to early states and eventually modern nations.

Conflict management could then be delegated to police, courts and political figures, and in some cases, armies could intervene.

As for conflict between groups (rather than within them), humans, like chimpanzees, and bonobos to a lesser degree, fight with their neighbors. In the modern world, nations devote considerable resources to preparing for war, and small wars are waged frequently. However, like hunter-gatherers, nations can use truces and treaties to resolve them, Boehm writes.

Do you think world peace is possible?

"In the foreseeable future, the human capacity for political problem-solving will continue to be tested, with an ancient capacity for conflict management providing an important tool in international politics," he writes.

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So there you have we are all just smart monkey's! Well we sorta knew that from biology in school - but to still carry those primitive genes in all these ages is remarkable that we haven't been able to alter those deep seeded prehistoric self defense feelings. Ever been in a fight - after it's over most don't remember how - why - or what started it? Especially if you've been drinking which no doubt shuts down (the human aspects) and the self defense (the primitive) kicks in. Could you see someone in court using that phrase to a judge?

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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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