I think people are generally good. One argument says that people have always been selfish and interested in increasing their own power at the expense of everyone else, so they need a government, parent, or dictator to make them behave in a civilized manner. Another argument says that people were good from the start, and it wasn’t until they settled down and started taking ownership of things like food and land that they started to behave selfishly.
There are about eight billion opinions on which argument makes more sense, but like I said, I think people are generally good. There are still a few tribes of people who haven’t been civilized that make what we call civilization appear pretty savage.
While there are always people who behave badly during wars and natural disasters, there are always more who pitch in to help, rescue, and shelter people in trouble. I’m not going to spend much time documenting what I say here, partly because these are just my opinions, but mostly because smart people like Rutger Bregman and Daniel Quinn have published ample evidence already.
Something Bregman said in “Humankind” helps explain something I’ve been confused about. He said, “evil has to be disguised as doing good.” He suggests that evil is not bubbling dangerously just below the surface, but must be planted, cultivated, and dragged out of us against our will.
I live in a country where there are multiple mass shootings every day. And since 2016 it feels like no matter who you voted for, millions of people not only think you are wrong, but they think you should be dead. I have friends and relatives who are much smarter than I am and are thoroughly good people, who seem to have developed opinions diametrically opposed to mine.
People spend their whole lives becoming who they are, and the odds of convincing them to change their minds are slim at best. I work in the service department of a jewelry store, and do my best to develop a positive working relationship with customers who are asking for help. If someone’s bumper sticker, clothing or body art proclaims something I think is ridiculous, I try to remember that they make the best decisions they can based upon their experience.
Let’s say, for example, that your ancestors came to a particular part of the earth from a place they didn’t feel safe or successful. Maybe they got along well with whoever already lived there, or maybe they didn’t. Either way, they wanted to stay, so they built some houses, grew some food, and started to feel like this is where they belonged.
After a few generations they had established farms and towns and their own system of rules so they would get along with each other well enough to keep from destroying their civilization. With plenty of land to expand into if they needed more food or buildings, arguments about ownership didn’t get out of control.
Soon another group of people showed up, looking for a place where they could feel safe and comfortable. While there is still plenty of land, the new group can put up their own buildings and grow their own food. Nobody minds as long as the new people don’t upset anyone who already lives there.
More groups arrive, establish themselves, and since ample food always creates more people, the local population increases. As it becomes harder to find room to grow more food and more people, people begin to feel a little less safe and comfortable.
This might seem familiar, but fast forward a few more generations, and someone has to take charge of managing this population growth. Maybe the loudest guy in the neighborhood, who has managed to hold onto a big farm or several buildings, tells some of his friends that they need to protect their farms and buildings from all these new people who keep showing up.
His friends believe him. He’s the guy with all the buildings and food, who fed them when they arrived, as long as they helped him harvest his food or put up another building. When he says it’s in their best interests to help him stop this flood of newcomers from taking their food or living in their buildings, that sounds like the right thing to do.
Now that they know the right thing to do, they start locking up their food in their buildings, and putting up “Keep Out” signs. Some of the more assertive members of the group have meetings about what they can do to keep outsiders from stealing their stuff.
They form a government and a police force. No one mentions how their ancestors felt when they arrived. And the wolf in sheep’s clothing says they have to do something bad because it’s the right thing to do.