the problem with humans

we are all humans, me, and you readers, of course. but there is a very serious problem with us. do you know what is wrong with us humans? we came about through biological evolution, from animals. you may have noticed, animals lack the capability to do rational thought, or process language and words and use that to communicate. humans, on the other hand, are perfectly capable of rational thought and the use of language and advanced word-based communication. that is what is wrong with us.

you see, we have invented technology, and used it to make ourselves live in an artificial world, far from the natural world our ancestors came from. we have developed advanced multicultural society with multiple different frames of reference for human understanding. but, human understanding is something that causes pain and suffering, and makes us search for meaning. why is this? it is very simple.

emotions and animal urges are very common in animals, and animals always act on their emotions and urges. animals do not have any notion of delayed gratification or self-control. they cannot teach each other proper forms of behavior. they rely upon instinct. and when they act in harmony with instinct, pursue the goals that their animalistic urges drive them to pursue, and are successful, animals are happy. animals do not search for meaning in life, or question things, or wonder what their place in the universe is. they do not wonder about an afterlife, or feel like there is something missing, or feel empty inside. they do not engage in pointless debates with other animals who strongly disagree with them. because animals cannot comprehend ideas, nor do they have any need for ideas. they do perfectly well without them. animals may be stupider than us humans, and might not live as long, and might be prone to rather gruesome deaths, but such is the way of nature. at least they enjoy their brief lives, or so it appears to us.

humans, on the other hand, have a lot of problems. our technology and language have brought us many benefits, but also huge amounts of problems, especially psychologically. we still have the same emotions, instincts, and urges as our animal ancestors, but our language abilities have enabled us to teach each other things. and what do we teach each other? every human is naturally born as an animal, who pursues instincts and urges and acts on emotions, without a care for anything else, or any need for delayed gratification or anything like that. but, we teach our children, the young humans, not to be animals. we teach them the human lifestyle, the civilized mode of behavior, where self-restraint, self-control, delayed gratification, and subordination of the emotions to the intellect are all taught. whereas in animals, the mind is simply a tool to help the body survive and reproduce, in humans, it is reversed, and the body, and technology, and everything else, all exist for the benefit of the mind. a person’s body is de-personalized, and humans are de-animalized, when they are children. we become mind-word-zombies, enslaved by our own minds, and the words of our languages, and the systematic forms of behavior that we teach each other. since we humans teach each other to live in such a non-harmonious way with our animalistic nature, we feel a profound sadness deep inside, a feeling of emptiness, a feeling that the modern life is pointless or hopeless.

there are many ways this problem is shown. we humans are often violent or abusive towards one another, or self-destructive or suicidal towards ourselves. we pursue belief in authoritarian belief systems of organized religion or of cults, which tell us what we can and cannot do, and what we can and cannot believe. this is enslavement of both mind and body to an impersonal, abstract system of ideas that does not even physically exist. we brainwash ourselves into believing in various causes, political ideologies, or belief systems, and demonize and hate anyone who opposes our views or our goals. we all find a need to somehow rebel against the system, and every human has their own unique way of rebelling against the norms of this social, economic, and political system of mental enslavement. but who is really enslaving us? the answer is quite clear: each person enslaves themselves. we teach each other self-enslavement, and live our lives based around this notion. we criticize people who fail to fully enslave themselves, such as people who suddenly go berserk whilst stationed in a hostile foreign country, and go on a killing rampage against innocent civilians. our word-based ideas of morality teach us the non-animalistic concepts of right and wrong, which often contradict the animalistic notion of doing whatever you feel like doing, at all times, without any restrictions. people who behave in this animalistic manner are usually categorized as behaving wrong, and severely punished. thus society regulates itself, and ensures that mental self-enslavement is universally practiced.

so, why do we procrastinate important assignments when we are students? why do we accumulate large messes in our houses and not clean up? why do we abuse and mistreat each other, and have pointless arguments or senseless violence? why do we feel like there is something missing, and feel emptiness or hopelessness inside, and have to resort to organized religion or cults or spirituality or other irrational belief systems? why do we refuse to take responsibility for things and blame everything on other people? this is all part of the core problem of humans. our animalistic emotions, instincts, and urges have not evolved to a higher form, although our word-based language skills and reasoning ability are a relatively new gift from evolution. these language skills and reasoning ability are quite new, on evolutionary terms, and we, as a species, have not had enough time to adapt to them. and, since the development of advanced technology, we have had hardly any time to adapt to it in evolutionary terms. this takes many, many generations. while our minds are supple enough to deal with paradigm shifts and come up with and understand new ideas, this puts our emotional, animalistic side at even more disadvantage, because we often tend to ignore its needs and we drive ourselves berzerk deep inside. a soldier can have all the advanced military training in the world, and be taught again and again to always follow orders and to obey the rules of engagement and such, but deep inside we all have a strong need to rebel againt these socially-taught rules and norms. inevitably, everyone finds the need to disobey rules or do things that are immoral or frowned upon; our animal ancestors never followed any rules, and following rules is deeply antithetical to any person, emotionally. every person, at some times, will have their self-control fail, and their animalistic emotions and urges will prevail and govern their behavior. thus, people become drug addicts, or go out and get tatoos or body piercings or dye their hair a bright color, or soldiers in iraq might go on a killing spree in haditha. these are all similar responses of people being overwhelmed by their animalistic emotions, which have a strong sense of hostility to any rules forced upon them by the intellect. our animalistic emotions and urges force us to express ourselves somehow, or act differently from everybody else in some way, because slavish conformity is a great offense against these animalistic sensibilities. but, this animalistic side does not have any use for morality or rules, and is completely selfish and amoral, with no care whatsoever about the long term, only seeking short-term pleasure. the moral mind, with its rules and its words and its language, usually manages to rule over this animalistic emotional side, at least in terms of preventing its worst excesses like killing people. but every person has the potential in them to become a monster, an inhuman amoral killing machine. and why do i say inhuman? because the foundation of humanity, that makes us different from the animals, is our words, our language, our reason, and our morality. once we abandon that, and revert to an animal-like state of existence and behavior, we have become inhuman, and abandoned our humanity.

so, is there a way people can harmonize themselves, and have their animalistic emotions and urges and instincts stay in harmony with their human intellect and language understanding and morality and logic and reason? usually, we can. i think most people could alleviate their problems, the ones of a psychological nature, by having a more internally harmonious existence. if we focus our intellect and reason on the issue of fulfilling as many of our animalistic urges and instincts as possible without violating our sense of morality, we can have internal harmony between our human and animal selves. this is the way to achieve fulfillment, or enlightenment, or nirvana, and end the despair and frustration and sense of hopelessness or emptiness inside. and if we focus on the animalistic urges and instincts that would be moral to fulfill, and ignore the immoral ones, we can preserve our morality without neglecting our animalistic needs, and thus have a harmonious emotional state. we also need to reject systems of ideas that tend to entrap our minds and keep us away from this harmonious existence; there are many ideologies and belief systems that are out there, lurking as traps ready to snap up our minds and make us enslave ourselves yet again. but we each have the keys to our own internal liberation. and someone can free their mind, no matter where they live, or who they are, even in a third-world dictatorship. it is the duty of every human to liberate their own mind from internal oppression, because a person with a harmonious mind is far less likely to ever go berserk or do horrible things than someone whose mind is enslaved by systems of ideas and beliefs. we must always question our own beliefs, the same way a dog must question whether you really have a dog treat in your hand when you command it to roll over. should the dog get all excited and wag its tail and follow your command, or are you just pretending to have a dog treat that is not really there? even animals can have rudimentary beliefs of this sort (i.e., i believe my master is holding a dog treat), which is why having beliefs and ideas is not completely antithetical to human existence and the animalistic side of the mind. but, the less concrete and the more abstract these beliefs and ideas get, the more dangerous they can become towards internal harmony. we must be practical, not idealistic, because the practical human is the one who has the most harmony between urges/instincts and thoughts/actions. insanity = stupidity. a dog who thinks you have a dog treat in your hand when you don’t, and acts very eager and wags its tail really fast, is either insane or stupid, but they are really the same thing: believing something which is false. for a harmonious existence, you can be neither insane nor stupid. you have to be smarter than a dog, and able to see that there is no dog treat in the hand, even though you really wish there were a dog treat in the hand, because false expectations lead to disappointment. anyway, i feel this discussion has been thorough enough to make my point. i am now going to act in accordance with what i have written here. you should too, and then maybe less humans will have problems.