By Tim Wood
If you are lucky enough to visit Strasbourg, France, in the Alsace region, near Kehl, Germany, walking for hours under historical guidance, you will marvel at the fraught history of back and forth, aggravated, physical dominance the two countries have shared over Strasbourg for centuries.
Conflicts so specific to this region and lasting for so long that it has evolved into it’s own “Alsatian” culture: A unique mix of French and German influences. Ironically, Strasbourg today is one of the governmental seats of the European Union and given their history, I would hope that most of its citizens are now pacifists.
As we were receiving this regional history lesson, talk turned to the Franco-Prussian War then on into World War I. Approaching our question-and-answer period, our guide said that during this era, Switzerland established its neutrality policies and started its neutral “protective” banking; happy to shelter the gold and cash from both France and Germany.
Our guide was speaking in a snide way, in my opinion, so I blurted out, “Some people would say that’s just being greedy!” and then, straight away, a fellow tourist answered, “Well, that’s just human nature!”
Being how I am, I’ve been thinking about this exchange ever since.
When I Googled “Human Nature,” words like instinct, competition, discipline, intuition, freedom, civility, love, social comparison, and yes, eventually running across greed … so many words attempting to define our human nature. Apparently, there are two schools of thought concerning human nature: Those of us (I am one) who believe that people can change their human nature through learned traits and those that believe we cannot change our human nature; perhaps my fellow tourist fell into that group.
Some accept the seven deadly sins hidden within our human nature: pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and laziness. Some also accept the seven virtues: humility, charity, chastity, patience, temperance, and diligence. All, apparently, facets within our diamond that is human nature.
Why do religions preach and encourage their congregations to study the positive and negative aspects of human nature? Religion wants to teach us that we can indeed steer our moral compass toward positive, social living, becoming an asset to our cultural society. Simply living a life that is positive and productive to your tribe.
From what I’ve been taught, that’s the ideal. So why are we so inclined to dismiss greedy and selfish character attributes with “Oh, that’s just human nature!” or “He can’t help himself, it’s human nature!” It’s interesting to me that vanity is usually listed as human nature but modesty isn’t; Modesty is a supposedly learned trait.
Does evolution play a part in the development of our human nature? Does our human nature mature through evolution? Take shame. We don’t learn to feel shame – psychologists think that it may be innate – so do we learn or inherit shame? I have noticed that present-day parents seem to be extra diligent with teaching their children about self worth and self respect, self identity, perhaps even self specialization (desiring excellence within specific, chosen goals).
From preschool on, the youth of today seem to be highly encouraged into becoming productive citizens, certainly more than I was. Even back when we had civic classes, I’m not sure how much I learned about being a proper citizen, being civil. So yes, I believe human nature improves with evolution as long as we are living in a truly democratic, rule of law, civil society.
A lot of this thinking falls within the controversial debate of nature versus nurture. This debate focuses on the opinion that human traits like empathy and shame may be innate at birth, but if they are not nurtured within our first couple years of life, they not only weaken, they can disappear from our psyche. So, teach your children (and parents) well.
More importantly, though, may be the concept of humans reinventing human nature. We humans should not tolerate nor accept bad behavior or improper vices, excusing them because they may or may not stem from our “human nature.” Free will may give us the ability to make choices within our own nature but we must be held responsible for those choices, and also, should be held accountable when our choices harm a civil society.
I came of age within the mid sixties and I was an angry young man, very anti-establishment. A girlfriend’s father used to call me Timothy “Weary.” Because of an extremely conservative exposure growing up and then rebelling against it, I was politically “aware” at an early age. I became apolitical when I was around 19 in 1969. Nothing “liberal” was happening fast enough for me.
I disliked Nixon, Reagan and Ford but respected Carter. I did not have much respect for Clinton nor Bush-1. I wanted Gore to be president and disliked Bush-2. I admired Obama and have always disliked Trump. Today, I’m shocked at the accepted behavior with radical right politicians since and including Trump’s administration. I’m shocked and dismayed there is actually a movement called the Jan. 6s raising money to support the capital insurrectionists, making them out as patriots.
Finally, after learning about Trump’s tax records, I’m again reminded of how angry I become with knowing how prevalent tax sheltering is among the very wealthy and believing that they exemplify the worst aspect of capitalism. But I take pause; I may be full of rage, but I force patience because I’m an optimist, and I won’t permit myself to embrace rage. I won’t allow myself the excuse “Hey, it’s just my human nature.”
Tim and Kristy Wood moved to Beaufort in 1974. He worked as a carpenter in both restoration and new home construction, as well as operating a shop specializing in custom woodwork, Wood on Wood Specs. He is semi-retired, involved with fine woodworking and formerly sat on the City of Beaufort Zoning Board of Appeals.
