So if humans are so wonderful, as a species, why do they do all this awful stuff? Why terrorism, why murder, why rape? Why all the behaviors that cause us to doubt the goodness of human nature?
I think there are answers to these questions, but once again, they lie on this side of the chasm.
Think of a tiger, or an elephant, or a wasp. Most of the time they function quite well in the world.
A tiger may kill an antelope to eat, but that is not evil, it is merely normal, healthy, tiger behavior. An elephant may show aggression toward another elephant, but once again that is normal, healthy elephant behavior.
On the whole, elephants do not go on elephant killing rampages, tigers do not maim other tigers for no reason, or even kill more antelopes than they can eat, wasps do not set off on stinging sprees.
But what about the ones who do? What do we make of a tiger that kills without reason, or attacks other tigers irrationally?
We think that something has gone wrong, not with tigers as a species, but with that particular tiger. And we put it down to one of two things: we decide that this particular tiger was crazy—has something physically wrong with it that caused this behavior—or we decide that its environment is at fault.
Perhaps it was raised in a zoo, and mistreated there, or maybe it was diseased: had rabies, or some other infection. Perhaps it was orphaned as a cub, or had suffered through experiences that made it wary, frightened, and defensive.
We don't decide that there is something fundamentally wrong with tigers as a species, and that this tiger is merely reverting to type.
And we're wise, because a belief that tigers are simply evil by nature would not guide us well, either in dealing with this tiger, or with tigers generally. It would keep us from really understanding about tigers, and learning how to deal with them.
The same is true of humans. Most destructive behavior by humans is relatively rare, and can be put down to mental disease or environment, with certain exceptions.
I find the exceptions interesting, partly because the cause is strangely paradoxical. There are whole cultures where violence against women, or racism, or other destructive behaviors happen in a systematic, and organized fashion. And there are small pockets of culture other places where these things happen as well.
What strikes me as paradoxical is that when this kind of destructive behavior exists on a cultural level, it is almost always seen as "moral". That is, the people doing it don't do it because they think it's wrong, but want to do it anyway; they do it because they believe it's the "right" thing to do.
Wars have been fought, people have been oppressed, all sorts of nastiness has happened because we were trying to be "good". Paradoxical, and worth mulling over.
At least, that's what I think today.
