Animal Instinct

Nafisa Joseph, may she rest in peace. I liked the chick. It's a great tragedy for the human animal that life or so I should say modern day “civilized living” brings us to the brink of killing ourselves or hurting oneself through some seemingly harmless (“stress busting” or at times socially necessary activities) like smoking, bungee jumping or driving fast to reach in time, which is contrary to the basic animal instinct of each animal - Survival.

1. What has made us loose our animal instinct, so much so that to the uninitiated, it is a derogatory term?

I have always been intrigued by the fact as to why are we humans unhappy or in case many others who would confess to be reasonably "happy". When I see other animals, not in captivity but in the jungle (natural ecosystem) I always wonder if they know what is it like been unhappy or happy? Every person develops his own impressions from such experience and for the rest of us we rely on other persons experience and judgment (partially or completely) to form an opinion. But, I think those who have had such an opportunity more than I have had, would second me in saying that there are no emotions like been happy, sad or bored in animals. As, for the animals in captivity and unnatural conditions, the story may be quite different. So, it can be inferred that what we have created in the form “modern society” and civilization in an unnatural condition for our species.

2. The question that then arises is that how the hell did we reach to the point where we have created an environment which is against our natural instincts (or has propelled the majority of mankind into deplorable living conditions)?

Before I dwell into that I must first address another question. What is animal instinct?
The instinct to survive - which includes looking for food, finding shelter and procreation. This is something which we are born with, which becomes active with our response to the surroundings/environment. Now, each species has its own reaction to environment and is governed by genetics. This is where a gentleman named Mr. Darwin and his theory comes into place. Simply speaking we are the creatures evolved by the process of natural selection and survival of the fittest. For all species it is the nature which enforces evolution onto the species. So, it may be because we have evolved into a species which felt it was necessary to change the environment to suit our needs rather than evolving further.

3. But, if that is so then how did we become “intelligent” enough to change our environment?

This is where Darwin’s theory is not able to cover up. The church would have us believe that we are the supreme creation of God. The Marxist believe it’s the social classes and the Freudians refer it to the Oedipal drama with in the family. I am not aware of the views of the Vedas on this issue. Above three explanations are not fundamental as they do not explain or question the existence of society and social behavior irrespective of how primitive it is. Recently, I stumbled upon the theory of Consilience, by E.O Wilson which proposes to explain this from the fundamental Darwinian standpoint, by attributing this to genetics. We are a negative at birth and can only be best up to a complete positive of it depending how “exposed” we are. The question here is again do all species have this ability of intelligence (which gets activated at a certain time in the evolution cycle) or these genes were specifically formed in us. The answers to this can create various scenarios, but as of now it is the humans who have to ability to change the environment because of their intelligence.

There are many critics of this theory and term it racial as it states that all our abilities (talents) are determined by genes and that free will is an illusion and they label it on the lines Nazi ideology. If it is indeed proven to be a fact then it has to accepted, since it offers a plausible explanation. Further, is not correct to assume that the stronger of a species will go about to killing or oppressing a weaker of the species because the concept of this society (as we know it to be hierarchal) is a part of the evolution process. This is very much different from the concept of the “artificial society” which is professed by the Marxist, the Capitalists or any man made concept of society as this society is in itself a figment of human imagination or so to say “freewill”. I think of Hitler as a believer in the evolution philosophy, but his actions to terminate the “weaker” population was caused by social reasons in a man made unnatural society and not by evolutionary needs.

4. Is man is a social animal?

What I am assuming here is that humans during some stage of their evolution became a social animal (as many other primates). But, that during the course of times our societies became more “advanced” propelled by our “intelligence” to use the environment for our benefit. Our “intelligence” was also the process of our evolution. So, in turn our societies are evolved. One thing that strikes me is that the intelligence propelled change in the environment (deforestation?) or the social structure is much faster than the natural process. This may be seen as conflict between the animal instincts of humans and the acquired social behavior. It is however ironic to note that primitive social behavior may have existed for satisfying these instincts. In order to better understand this, a study of present society is called for, which I shall leave for later times.

We have tried various kinds of social structures over the ages and still nothing seems to work. There are many different theories about social structure and predominantly governed by the respective religious beliefs. I have the following questions, which I hope to address in the future.

Are we in a transition phase of our evolution? (Will it ever end?)
OR
Are we at the end of our species and/or the planet? (Is it our destiny to eventually collapse and there is no point fighting it)

If we survive ....
All the differences regarding the social structure have to subside, when humans form what may be called as collective intelligence. It would the mean the survival of the fittest “intelligent” gene(s) and the creation of the utopian world. Will the human genome project and IT revolution have a role to play in it and to what extent? May be every war, every tragedy will take us back to our Animal Instinct again.