Human
Programming and Conflict: Part I — Instincts,
Imprints, and Filters
…the poor duckling, who…looked so ugly, was bitten
and pushed and made fun of, not only by the ducks, but by all
the poultry….the poor little thing did not know where
to go, and was quite miserable because he was so ugly and laughed
at by the whole farmyard. So it went on from day to day till
it got worse and worse. The poor duckling was driven about by
every one; even his brothers and sisters were unkind to him,
and would say, "Ah, you ugly creature, I wish the cat would
get you," and his mother said she wished he had never been
born. The ducks pecked him, the chickens beat him, and the girl
who fed the poultry kicked him with her feet. So at last he ran
away….
The Ugly Duckling, by Hans Christian
Andersen
In
the twenty-first century, after having survived millennia of
natural and human disasters that threatened survival and caused
so much suffering, it seems that humans are still largely governed
by the same false biological instincts as in the story, “The
Ugly Duckling.” We
want to destroy what is different from us. Human conflict and environmental
destruction show a basic lack of a consciousness that understands
the underlying unity and interdependence of all beings.
The
most disturbing manifestation of human conflict is the suicide
bomber. Not because its victims are many, but because the killer
is also a victim — a victim of his or her act and a victim
of the forces that produced the act. Am I alone in feeling that
the female suicide bomber is even more horrible and disturbing?
I find it hard to reconcile the giver and nourisher of life with
an image of such an intimate and personal taking of life. [1]
Why
are we not equally horrified by a cruise missile that destroys
a whole neighborhood killing children along with their mothers,
fathers and grandparents? Perhaps because the act is so impersonal,
so scientific, so easily rationalized by political words; perhaps
because the killer is not also a victim of the act, so that the
killing seems more “natural;” perhaps because the
intellectual distance makes it more righteous, and we, in whose
name it is done, less personally responsible.
Human
genome research tells us that we are 99.99 percent the same
genetically. Why are humans still committing suicide on a
global scale for the sake of .01 percent, or equally absurd,
because of cultural and religious differences? If anything,
the genome research is proving religious claims that “we
are all children of God.” We
are even genetically related to insects and flowers. When enlightened
thinkers tell us to be harmless, they are telling us that taking
life is suicide.
Somewhere
deep in our subconscious, printed on our shared genetic code,
buried under layers of the clothing we call culture, race,
and identity, is an instinct that is opposed to the notion
of self-destruction. If that instinct didn’t exist, how
could one explain the desire to survive even in horrible conditions?
Throughout all of human history, suicide remains an aberration — a
result of obsession, delusion, insanity. [2]
The
universal genetic instinct for self-preservation has resulted
in written codes and unwritten taboos that condemn killing one
self and others. So how come there are still wars, riots, ethnic
cleansing, and man-made destruction of our life-raft earth? It’s
because of the layers of clothing that act as filters, coloring
and distorting our perceptions and actions. We respond to our
environment and to others based on these filters, and upon the
programmed responses that have been imprinted upon us either
unconsciously or by design.
If
the reality is that humans share the same core instincts and
the same needs, why is it that we permit life to be governed
by our filters and imprints? Taken as a whole, the filters and
imprints of race, religion, ethnicity, nationalism, desires,
fears and prejudice cover the shared essence of our human nature.
Humans must resist the false behavior forced upon us by the myth-makers
who create unnecessary conflicts. They take away our self-determination
and happiness and threaten our survival. Like the Ugly Duckling,
we must realize that hidden within us is a beauty, which is a
potential we share with all human beings.
Next month: What constitutes the filters and imprinting shaping
current events? How may humanity change direction so that we
resolve our conflicts and shape a healthy and peaceful future?
[1] Torture,
a vile and repugnant act, is in a different category than human
conflict; it is based on cruelty, on the desire for power over
another, and on the desire to humiliate. return
[2] Acts of selflessness to help others, which may result in personal
harm and even death, belong to that category of unpremeditated
sacrifice produced by one who has sublimated animal instincts,
and who acts from the instinct that recognizes one-self in others.
We call them “heroes.” Motive is the key: preserving
life versus taking life; a consciousness of unity versus a consciousness
of separateness; an act of love versus an act of hate; spontaneous
sacrifice versus premeditated self-destruction. return
©
2006 Richard Sidy
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