28 3 / 2008
The Primal Threat
Faith as a marker for a “non free-thinker” is probably misleading. The core arguments of faith — whether or not they are understood by the faithful — are cogent enough. Religion is, after all, a broad portfolio of control mechanisms, and it is not, by far, the only one. People are constantly hacking each other, usually with cheap appeals to our primal needs, and we all make the mistake of counting ourselves impervious.
Although people are insightful, the truth is we are only insightful part of the time. We have within us physiological traits which are not entirely harmonious with collective social structures. When survival or procreation are threatened, we all slip in to a much more primal mode where we are not only antagonistic, but rather dumb. And since we now live in a world of such magnitude that we can be goaded with procreation and survival constantly, it is difficult to avoid the kind of exclusionary, selfish thinking that generally comes over us when we are under primal threat — especially if you watch TV.
It’s hard to see where the chain reaction of people hacking each other’s desires for personal gain can stop unless something transcendent happens to the human psyche. If we’re lucky, it will be of our own design — conscientious and noble — but more likely it will be some great cataclysm that decimates and humbles us.
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
