How Do We Know When We Are Part of a Terrible Evil?

Blog #12                                             April 2020

Much of humanity, has spent much of its time, blithely living life and going about its daily business while aswim in seas of evil. Generations lived when slaves were casually bought and sold like dogs, were routinely beaten, raped, worked to near, or actual death; yet citizens of those times considered themselves “good christians” (or protestants, or muslims, etc), – indeed the “crowns of creation”.

Civilizations thrived where citizens went about their daily lives feeling quite moral while young virgins (and infants) were routinely sacrified to the gods for the community good. Even the civilized Greeks did it, as for example King Agamemnon, who sacrificed his own daughter to ensure the defeat of Troy. Romans, the largest and most advanced folk of their times, regularly flocked with their families to the Colliseum to watch people fed to lions, men fight to the death, bulls and bears chained together to see which would kill which, to witness the mass slaughter of elephants, etc., all for a good day’s entertainment. This was no more troubling to their contemporary consciences than going to the movies is to us. This went on for nearly 400 years and saw the death of an estimated 400,000 people and over a million animals. In the American south as evidenced from photos of the time, families thought it just fine to bring their children to watch lynchings or their immediate aftermaths – they even sold postcards of these events. Millions of Germans who thought they were the crème-de-la-crème of European culture thought it perfectly fine to exterminate Gypsies, Jews and the handicapped for the sake of the Aryan Race.

So how do we know if we are living in similar times? How do we know if we are similarly unconscious of an evil we are immersed in? How do you look from the outside at what you are within?

Today I mentioned this to my son-in-law who is helping me write a book about our relations with the “animal” world. He talked of coming to realize that we have within us the contradictions of being both Prey and Predator and hence both the victim and victimizer not only of others but of each other. I have usually thought of this in terms of the tensions between the “animal within” and the “animal without”; ie the resonant structures in our neuro and social systems, and consequent conflict with our actions and attitudes to the actual “animals” outside. The ambivalence is there for sure. Just consider the horrendous treatment we provide to creatures in labs and factory farms (animals on the “outside”) to the lavish treatment and love we give those creatures we consider “Pets” (animals on the “inside”).

However my son-in-law’s point is somewhat different. He is talking of us being originally prey animals. Prey animals who have turned into Predators. This unusual turn has great consequences. Most predators are solitary with a few notable exceptions; lions in the cat family, and wolves and wild dogs in the canine. Both of these are true predators – they come armed with sharp teeth and claws, short intestinal length to pass toxic waste quickly through their systems, and high hydrochloric acid content to process meat efficiently. We however lack these features and so are not natural carnivores, nor even true omnivores such as bears.

We are herd animals who live in groups like most prey animals. But unlike most prey animals we have learnt to use our groups to kill. This, along with language and artificial weaponry has made us the most effective predators on the planet. But with our prey nature comes the “herd instinct” – the deep tendency to conform to the herd, to “think as one”. This is part of why we often act without questioning what we are doing. As prey our lives depended on being in synch with the herd. If the majority are doing something – especially killing, or something else disturbing, we have ancient mechanisms which kick in to keep us doing anything which opposes the motion of the herd.

This is a partial answer to the question of why we can live in such oblivion to social actions that are terrible. We are designed as prey animals to follow the herd and not deviate from its group behaviour.

Today we live in a world far more steeped in blood than that of the Roman Colliseum. We currently kill 66 billion land creatures per year and over a trillion in the sea. Yet we think of ourselves as the most civilized, advanced beings to have ever lived.

The question remains, how do we help each other step out of the herd to see our actions independently?  I would love to hear from you if you have any ideas about this. Thank you.