I have been thinking a lot about the aggressiveness of humans. Only recently the oldest (at least based on an archaeological finding) battlefield was discovered in Kenya. No mercy to a pregnant woman who was tortured and then killed, no mercy to children who were also brutally killed. The reason? Somebody was coveting someone else’s belongings.
It has been a known fact for a while now that humans share some genes with other bipeds who were living at the same time as us. Like Neanderthals who died out about 40 000 years ago. We have 1-4% of genetic material in common because at the time we coexisted, we cross bred. However, humans are still around but the Neanderthals are not. Why? The main reason why other similar species are extinct today is that we, homo sapiens were of the brutal and destroying kind. We caused their extinction.
Aggression sits in us so deep that it does not enable societies to function in a friendly way, it does not allow us to live in peace regardless of where we are located on this planed called the Earth. Aggression is making us wage war, worship weapons and physical superiority translated into superior military (think of all the obsession with war technology) preparedness in relationships between countries and continents. When Darwin said that only the most adaptable will succeed, he clearly did not mean the most adaptable in terms of aggression, this extremely destructive force. But it seems like it. Sometimes. At least when you look at the world and how we treat each other and other living creatures. The level of violence is high in human constellations regardless where they live and when they have lived. We rape, we torture, we kill and we even indulge in it. And we make films where we show how much we are transfixed in this topic. And they sell.
Human beings are utterly violent. This can be claimed based on a scientific tool called observation. Fortunately, there is another scientific tool called interpretation. Although observation and interpretation are interlinked, I’d like to separate them for the purpose of finding a reason in our existence, finding a purpose which is beyond this thrash we accumulate both inside and around us and which only makes us appreciate the visible to the eye rather than all the 5 senses.
Instead of thinking that sooner or later we kill ourselves and other species and blow up the planet, I’d rather like to interpret this high level of aggression as a sign of immaturity. We are the species which have not yet had enough time to evolve. Just around 1 million years. Like Einstein once proved that time and space can be relative values, so is the length of human existence compared to the age of the universe or human intelligence compared to collective intelligence of all the living materia. We are not there yet. On the other hand – knowing that we have not been able to reduce aggression during the time of our existence makes me concerned. Will we learn? What will trigger a learning curve which values more co-operative qualities?
We have had over 20 000 years to figure it out. We may need double the amount to take us to the next level. The interesting thing with yoga is that a steady practice reduces violence. Knowing oneself leads to accepting the world and everyone in it in a more harmonious way. Yoga has existed about 4000 years. I hope that we only need about half the amount of time to find answers to the questions I posed above. If we have the time. If we can make use of this time. Do we? Can we?
Kairi