Human Nature, the Cause of All Our Problems

 

What do social issues like war, hunger, oppression, smoking, poverty, and climate change have in common? We human beings are the root cause of most of our society’s problems. 

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What is happening in society? In this philosophy class, I’ve learned about various social issues, many of which are deeper and more complex than I had previously appreciated. For example, the issue of abortion, with the Supreme Court recently overruling Roe v. Wade, relates to a deep, philosophical debate about what human nature is and when life begins. These are questions without easy answers given our current knowledge, so this debate may remain unresolved and continue to present itself in social issues like abortion or “pulling the plug” on patients on life support. However, the Roe v Wade issue also stems from the Supreme Court’s lack of neutrality on abortion, and in turn, the power that some of those in the anti-abortion movement seek to have over women, American lifestyles, and the political economy. I realized that the subject of abortion isn’t merely a philosophical debate but also an area where people are suffering, since forcing women to undergo pregnancy involves health risks, job discrimination, various social pressures, and the responsibility of having a child, which can be a lifelong relationship and obligation. Then in class, we continued to discuss current issues like obesity shaming and racism, where people treat each other awfully, whether shaming them about their body or discriminating against them based on race. I remembered that I myself have experienced thoughts of discriminating against others on account of their race or body size, and these are not simple issues with distinct groups of victims and perpetrators. We also discussed Plato’s concept of social guardians, the people and institutions in society who rule and influence citizens, including children who don’t know any better. In our imperfect world, there are countless examples of people in these roles of power who mistreat and harm others, not only controversial institutions like the police but individuals such as parents beating their children. In all of these topics, there is an unfortunate element of people treating others unethically. 

 

Then I looked at other major social issues: war, oppression, corruption, violence, pollution; all are obvious examples where people are choosing to do things that result in these issues. Other issues like poverty, hunger, climate change, smoking, and suicide are less obvious, but, in each of them, there are elements from the previous list. There may be an objective lack of food and resources in the world, but there are also many people oppressing others and preventing them from accessing their surplus of food and resources. Climate change is a result of the pollution we've caused. Smoking and suicide are unfortunate instances of people harming themselves, and suicide is often associated with social pressures, including outright bullying. In all of these situations, people are acting unethically to others, themselves, or both. 

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We cause most of our problems. This is not a stunning revelation, but framing it this way is uncomfortable. Our humanity is one of our greatest treasures. We praise our intelligent, creative minds that distinguish us from other animals. We celebrate our achievements like advancing civilization, walking on the moon, performances in art and athletics, and walking for the first time as a baby. It seems contradictory that our most frequent threat is ourselves. Psychologist Mark Leary suggests that this isn’t only true on a societal level but also an individual level, where most of the conflicts and stresses we experience are around our relationships with individuals and many are caused by our own egos*[1]. I don’t know how true that is, but psychologists have demonstrated that various character “flaws” such as cognitive biases apply to just about everyone. I believe that the potential to commit various transgressions like racism or abusing power stems from basic human instincts that exist within all of us, like in-group bias or desire for power. Social issues aren’t coming from some separate class of society but from our own human nature. 

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People are not ethical. That phrasing is also interesting because several modern justice movements present themselves as “good guys” while the “bad guys” are some other group of people. I don’t disagree with that. In the realm of sexual assault, I heard UConn’s Title IX Office teach that victims must never be blamed, and I like their reasoning. There is significant psychological trauma and pressure associated with being a victim of sexual assault, and no one should suffer blame because someone else chose to assault them. This suggests another paradox, in that some people are innocent, yet everyone is flawed and suspect. Alternatively, I’ve noticed that some groups treat all of humanity as the source of our problems. One example is religions talking about sin or similar ideas. Professor Carney once said that civilizations have historically gone to great lengths, even extremes, to inhibit people from acting on their own most psychologically powerful drives, related to sex and aggression. A family member once claimed that the primary purpose of religion has been to get people to act ethically or at least decently. I wouldn’t go that far, but I combine these ideas to say that many religions have tried to prevent major ethical violations for a long time, and they’ve openly acknowledged our potential to be “sinners”, for example. I don’t know how effective this has been, but these ideas have been around for a long time. 

 

What does this mean? Where do we go from here, especially if we want to live in a more ethical world? I don’t have the solution. Ethics seems like a difficult concept in society on several levels. In class, we discussed Plato’s argument that there is an objective morality and those who have studied it know it better than those who haven’t, just as music critics know more of music than musicians. Some classmates disagreed with that analogy, and regardless, I haven’t learned ethics enough to understand how accurate Plato’s argument is. However, I think it’s reasonable that both the critic and the performer have greater proficiency in music than someone who hasn’t significantly interacted with or thought about music. Similarly, perhaps we can develop greater proficiency in ethics by engaging with it significantly, like a beginner learning music. 

 

[1] Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/toward-less-egoic-world/201706/most-problems-are-people-problems