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Rutger Bregman: 'Our secret superpower is our ability to cooperate'
Rutger Bregman: 'Our secret superpower is our ability to cooperate'
The historian offers a hopeful view of human nature in his latest book, Humankind. It couldnt have come at a better time
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/rutger-bregman-our-secret-superpower-is-our-ability-to-cooperate
Jonathan Freedland
Jonathan Freedland
@Freedland
Sat 9 May 2020 04.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 9 May 2020 10.58 EDT
<snip>
Stone by stone, Bregman breaks up the foundations that underpin much of our understanding of ourselves as callous, uncaring creatures hiding beneath a veneer of civilisation. That understanding has acted as a self-fulfilling prophecy, he says: if people expect the worst of each other, theyll get it. He can cite the experiments that show even lab rats behave worse when their handlers assume theyll behave badly. Our true nature is to be kind, caring and cooperative, he argues. We used to be like that and we can be again.
<snip>
The argument he makes is compelling, not least his suggestion that gloomy assessments of humankind such as William Goldings or Milgrams flourished in the postwar era, as the world tried to make sense of the Holocaust. One section of the book is titled After Auschwitz. Which brings us to the biggest roadblock in the way of his argument. How to square the notion that humans are fundamentally good with a long and continuing history of humanmade horror, exemplified by the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews, including more than a million children? Bregman does an admirable job debunking those post-Holocaust experiments and theories, but the Holocaust itself still stands there, implacable and unmoving.
<snip>
Bregman cites evidence that the motivation of perpetrators was often rooted in qualities wed ordinarily admire: loyalty to their fellow soldiers, for example. He notes how the friendliness that sets humans apart he calls our species Homo Puppy has a dark side, because empathy with us can turn to murderous hostility to not us. Our secret superpower is our friendliness and ability to cooperate, he says, and yet were also the cruellest of species. But surely, that latter statement fatally undermines his thesis?
I would emphasise that Im not actually saying that people are good. The title of the book in Dutch is De Meeste Mensen Deugen, which is Most People Are Deugen, with deugen a word that you cannot translate. Its sort of like pretty decent deep down or good after all. Later he refers to human destructiveness in these terms: Were not born to do this, but were capable of it.
Humankind by Rutger Bregman is published by Bloomsbury (RRP £20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
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Rutger Bregman: 'Our secret superpower is our ability to cooperate' (Original Post)
marble falls
May 2020
OP
In other postive news (history), human nature does not automatically devolve to Lord of the Flies
Bernardo de La Paz
May 2020
#1
Its more an interesting read than topical. I don't get much success at getting attention in general.
marble falls
May 2020
#4
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,064 posts)1. In other postive news (history), human nature does not automatically devolve to Lord of the Flies
Then, on the eighth day, they spied a miracle on the horizon. A small island, to be precise. Not a tropical paradise with waving palm trees and sandy beaches, but a hulking mass of rock, jutting up more than a thousand feet out of the ocean. These days, Ata is considered uninhabitable. But by the time we arrived, Captain Warner wrote in his memoirs, the boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination. While the boys in Lord of the Flies come to blows over the fire, those in this real-life version tended their flame so it never went out, for more than a year.
The kids agreed to work in teams of two, drawing up a strict roster for garden, kitchen and guard duty. Sometimes they quarrelled, but whenever that happened they solved it by imposing a time-out. Their days began and ended with song and prayer. Kolo fashioned a makeshift guitar from a piece of driftwood, half a coconut shell and six steel wires salvaged from their wrecked boat an instrument Peter has kept all these years and played it to help lift their spirits. And their spirits needed lifting. All summer long it hardly rained, driving the boys frantic with thirst. They tried constructing a raft in order to leave the island, but it fell apart in the crashing surf.
Worst of all, Stephen slipped one day, fell off a cliff and broke his leg. The other boys picked their way down after him and then helped him back up to the top. They set his leg using sticks and leaves. Dont worry, Sione joked. Well do your work, while you lie there like King Taufaahau Tupou himself!
The kids agreed to work in teams of two, drawing up a strict roster for garden, kitchen and guard duty. Sometimes they quarrelled, but whenever that happened they solved it by imposing a time-out. Their days began and ended with song and prayer. Kolo fashioned a makeshift guitar from a piece of driftwood, half a coconut shell and six steel wires salvaged from their wrecked boat an instrument Peter has kept all these years and played it to help lift their spirits. And their spirits needed lifting. All summer long it hardly rained, driving the boys frantic with thirst. They tried constructing a raft in order to leave the island, but it fell apart in the crashing surf.
Worst of all, Stephen slipped one day, fell off a cliff and broke his leg. The other boys picked their way down after him and then helped him back up to the top. They set his leg using sticks and leaves. Dont worry, Sione joked. Well do your work, while you lie there like King Taufaahau Tupou himself!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months?utm_source=digg
marble falls
(57,425 posts)2. Saw that ...
appalachiablue
(41,188 posts)3. Very interesting, I missed the Lounge post, wonder
why you chose that section?
marble falls
(57,425 posts)4. Its more an interesting read than topical. I don't get much success at getting attention in general.