Inhuman Nature

It is human nature to be reckless, insensitive, passive aggressive, inappropriate, uncaring. Along with all the positive attributes that we have no problem owning (positive attributes being the opposite of the above examples), we have all of these other nasty “natures” we must contend with on a daily basis. You may want to argue with me about this statement, that is fine, I am sure some people will disagree, but I am sticking with it. You might describe these attributes of human nature as a “trickster” archetype at work. That would be a refined way to put it, and I would not argue with that. Suffice it to say that human beings have a very complex psychology which contains all sorts of behaviors and “ways of thinking”—good and bad.

Some of this is shadow material, and the degree with which it is expressed is dependent largely on our upbringing and life experience. Some of us express a certain human nature that makes us assholes, some of us express other aspects of our humanness that makes us seem to be really nice people. But it is all, within reason, natural.

I use broad terms here, such as recklessness, because there are many different ways to be reckless. The “coloring” of “recklessness” is dependent on our life experience. An American white male, for example, will not have in his experience the generational trauma that an American black male will have had, and his recklessness may come in the form of subtle racism. Sixty years ago, he may have used the “n” word, particularly if he lived in a part of the country where he grew up hearing it often (even then, it was considered a very nasty word). Today, his recklessness may not go that far, but instead he may laugh at an “inappropriate” racial joke or make a reference in casual speaking that would be considered by a black person to be insensitive and inappropriate—or, as we shall see, downright racist.

I am using insensitivity to race as an example here, but we can find this in dozens of other situations. For another example, men will never be fully empathic to what women have had to endure living within a largely patriarchal culture for generations. Women will never fully understand the depth of male suffering, or even what brings great joy to men. Heterosexuals cannot possibly “feel” the pain of homosexuals, or even begin to understand what it is like to love another person of the same sex. No white person can begin to know what an indigenous person feels in mind and heart. We seem today to expect this level of understanding, as well as disregarding the fact that we are all human and as such do and say things that are, to reiterate, reckless, insensitive, inappropriate, etc. just as a natural matter of course.

Can we be better? Sure, we can. We can learn from social cues that our recklessness et al can be harnessed and reeled in. Certainly, when we are in public this is an imperative. But it is largely impossible to expect these attributes to be completely quelled in thought and in private actions. As said earlier, some of these things that I am calling human nature become refined and more specific (note that I will use a term such as “recklessness” to denote an aspect of human nature, and not specific terms such as “bigot” or “misogynist”). Recklessness is not pathological, whereas bigot or misogynist would be descriptions of shadow elements formulated within a psychological complex—both terms describe a set of instructions for a specific behaviour or thought process. People who are true racists, bigots, sexists, narcissists, and assholes, have issues deeper than “human nature” issues. It is also important to keep in mind I am not talking about extremes here. Pathological recklessness, for example, certainly exists and is a problem.

The line here is drawn by our contemporary culture. 100 years ago, a pathological racist would be defined differently than a pathological racist of today. (At least a rational take on this would say so. Presentism wishes to judge all generations by today’s standards, which, in my opinion, is a great tragedy.) Also in my opinion, the tolerance for what used to be considered human nature has all but disappeared.

Whatever happened to forgiveness and tolerance? It seems that the line is very thin that can be crossed today. And the repercussions do not end with a slap on the wrist and a reminder that “today we don’t say those things,” people can be destroyed for saying, or writing, “the wrong thing”—careers ended, lives devastated, family legacies blown to bits.

The trickster, as mentioned earlier, is responsible for some of this, but it seems that most of it occurs from a less sophisticated place. Tricksters usually have a positive intent, although often the positivity of a trickster’s action is difficult to see. Tricksters act impulsively, and often seem to be thoughtless. Human nature’s recklessness typically is thoughtless. More often than not there is no conscious intention. Often it is couched in humor and may seem passive aggressive. Very often, if not nearly all of the time, the impetus for recklessness is unconscious, or there is no impetus at all—it merely comes from a place of ignorance.

I had a client a few years back who was teaching a course on the operation of a piece of equipment his employer manufactured. The group of students were primarily female professionals. The day after the course his employer notified him that he was on probation because one of his students filed a complaint claiming that he said something that was “sexually inappropriate” during his teaching lecture. He eventually was let go and suddenly found himself with no career. He was never told what he said, and in our sessions together, he never figured out what it was.

Who knows? I worked with him for quite a while, and it was not within my psychological assessment of him to conclude that he was in any way a “bad” person. He had no unconscious, pent up, hatred for women (assuming it was a woman he offended). He was a jokester, and a bit of a trickster, so he could very well have said something a bit “off color”—but to lose his job over it? I don’t think so.

Of course, there are thousands of stories like this—unforgiveness, intolerance, and an inability to understand that people do have a limit to their depth of empathy and understanding. People, by nature, are not automatons. They are by no means perfect, and will, again by nature, say “stupid” things, insensitive things, reckless things, with no malintent behind them. They should be absorbed as just that, innocuous blabbering. Yes, there is a line. Where there is malicious intent, people should be called out for it. But most of this we are seeing is not malicious. It is just human nature, and until the agenda succeeds in making us inhuman cyborgs, we just have to live with it.