Self-Destruction

[Masta]

Humans are naturally self-destructive.

I was reading the ‘are we doom’ thread and came across this.

Why are humans self destructive in nature? Why would we continue to not improve ourselves or continue to do self destructive acts? Why do something we know is wrong?

I started thinking hard about this subject and thought the final answer is laziness and easy pleasure, but I would like some input from others.

 

[Niggernerd]

Thrills. Keeping on a straight and narrow path can be boring. I mean honestly you're gonna end up dead like everyone else anyways might as well get there differently.

 

[The 3rd Hooligan]

Because spergery is funnier than boring lives

 

[Token Weeaboo]

Because it's easier to leave an impact on the world doing things we know are wrong. Why work hard on building up a name with good reputation when you can just destroy what's around you and be known just as well? When in reality we are all going to be forgotten.

 

[Lemmingwise]

Why are humans self destructive in nature? Why would we continue to not improve ourselves or continue to do self destructive acts? Why do something we know is wrong?

The others are right. But the ground reason underlying is neoteny. Compared to other apes we have a high degree of neoteny. Just like the housecat and dogs, we are rather neotenous. I'm sure most here know, but for the couple that don't, neoteny is when a species gets a cheap way to mutate into complex behaviour. By halting the process towards becoming adults at an earlier stage, you get very different results.

What are the typical traits that are gained and lost upon adulthood for various animals? Usually it means less playfulness, less inquisitiveness, more territoriality, more aggressiveness and more specieist. With that last one I mean that the species out-group identification becomes stronger.

It's good for a young animal to not be discerning who gives them care and food.

Our ancestor's neoteny really helped the proto-humans spread after the last ice-age and populate new areas faster.

Now this curiosity has obviously been very valuable for things like science, very entertaining for things like arts and very destructive because most of the time experimentation is wasted energy or more explosive. The fact that some people in China are throwing themselves out of buildings because they're being cooped up in their houses, bored out of their minds is a side-product of that. We just get so god damn bored.

 

[Robert James]

There are a ton of reasons but here are a
Construction takes, time effort and the results aren't apparent immediately but destruction is quick and the results are instant.

Some forms of destruction are enjoyable and are often necessities that we take too far. For instance, food is something we need and a good tasting meal not only is enjoyable to eat but can lift your moods. When you have that same meal every hour your satisfaction may stay the same or lower slightly but you still feel happy and as if you have done something.

You also have a situation where there is nothing you can do besides struggle, think of the number of people working dead-end jobs, they can either work a job that brings them no satisfaction or break something and experience a change. It's not that intelligent but there are logical reasons for it, it's why almost every major religion warns of the vices of man and our self-destructive tendencies.

 

[Idiotron]

Are we?

In the span of a few millenia, we went from grass huts and praying to the Sun to megacities and splitting the atom.
Our lifespans are longer and we're safer than ever before.
We have set up societies where you can just go to a building and get quality food, clothes and tools, without struggling like every other species on the planet.
Our societies are incredibly coordinated and functional.
What we're capable of today would seem like magic 100, even 50 years ago.

I just think that horrible things are more exciting so we concentrate on those.
I don't remember the details but I recall reading about news networks trying to talk about nothing but positive news and the ratings dropped dramatically so they went back to reporting on the horrible stuff as usual.
You'll never about all the people who didn't die because of preventative measures being in place, you'll read about the 1 person who did die and you'll hear it a lot.

Are things perfect? Of course not.
We're fucking up in a lot of ways but that's because we're not gods, we're just slightly smarter apes.
Our simple brains often aren't capable of handling the modern era, things are too complex.
We're doing fine.

And this is coming from a person who's been dealing with serious depression for the majority of his life.