Humans: Just another animal
Had an interesting conversation with my classmate yesterday - after one week of intensive CSR, which raised the awareness of the subject for my class, we were discussing about what we learnt:
Jeff: I think human beings have not evolved as much as we claim ...
Eric: Why so?
Jeff: Well, seemed that our discussions pointed to the government having a pivotal role in ensuring that the world turns to sustainable practises, than to allow people to self manage and make a change for themselves (since they know that the Earth is dying)
Eric: So what has this got to do with humans being animals?
Jeff: Since we need some form of government control (or emotional control), we have really not evolved that highly in the food chain. At the end of the day, when rules are not in place, people tend to behave like animals - WILD! Face it, even if we claim we are a civilised society and should not be deprived of freedom (through laws), the only reason we do not behave wildly is because we are are restricted by 'intangible, emotional control' - that worry of being seen differently if acted differently ...
Eric: Well, when Katrina happened, people outside of New Orleans seemed to change their attitude about Nature, on the other hand, people in New Orleans just went on a rampage, raping and pilferaging ...
Jeff: See, for survival, we will do anything - even at the expense of hurting everything else. So in the same way, for survival, we will not work on CSR (and that seemed the same reasoning given by the developing nations). Their preoccupation with day-to-day survival is not letting them see things in a bigger picture. It is scary, but can you imagine the day when the world collapse - and then the huge calamity results in people only seeking survival? Maybe the end of the world will happen then - since our animal instinct will overcome whatever crap civil-mindedness we have developed in the past ...
Eric: Hm ....
So - I do not think we can afford to wait much longer? Are we prepared to wait till a real calamity to happen to trigger that animal instinct in people? Can we then hope only that the false sense of civic-mindedness will protect us from the beast within people? Does short term survival mean more than the long term survival of humankind?
Jeff: I think human beings have not evolved as much as we claim ...
Eric: Why so?
Jeff: Well, seemed that our discussions pointed to the government having a pivotal role in ensuring that the world turns to sustainable practises, than to allow people to self manage and make a change for themselves (since they know that the Earth is dying)
Eric: So what has this got to do with humans being animals?
Jeff: Since we need some form of government control (or emotional control), we have really not evolved that highly in the food chain. At the end of the day, when rules are not in place, people tend to behave like animals - WILD! Face it, even if we claim we are a civilised society and should not be deprived of freedom (through laws), the only reason we do not behave wildly is because we are are restricted by 'intangible, emotional control' - that worry of being seen differently if acted differently ...
Eric: Well, when Katrina happened, people outside of New Orleans seemed to change their attitude about Nature, on the other hand, people in New Orleans just went on a rampage, raping and pilferaging ...
Jeff: See, for survival, we will do anything - even at the expense of hurting everything else. So in the same way, for survival, we will not work on CSR (and that seemed the same reasoning given by the developing nations). Their preoccupation with day-to-day survival is not letting them see things in a bigger picture. It is scary, but can you imagine the day when the world collapse - and then the huge calamity results in people only seeking survival? Maybe the end of the world will happen then - since our animal instinct will overcome whatever crap civil-mindedness we have developed in the past ...
Eric: Hm ....
So - I do not think we can afford to wait much longer? Are we prepared to wait till a real calamity to happen to trigger that animal instinct in people? Can we then hope only that the false sense of civic-mindedness will protect us from the beast within people? Does short term survival mean more than the long term survival of humankind?