Most ppl think “we can't change: there's too much greed, too much consumerism"
But none of those are innate in ppl. They aren't human nature.
They're the products of culture, and cultures can change very quickly
#Nostr #FreeFlow #Bitcoin
Discussion
Human nature contains both sides of it. Compassion, mercy, love.. but also hate, violence, greed... all are part of human nature.
Culture can help direct people, bring out parts of the nature and suppress others. But it's all there under the hood.
Our so-called innate drives and primordial desires are manifested—or not—by the interconnection of the artefacts we collectively build (including language, arts, and mathematics) that our culture denominates Culture. The manifestations ‘greed’ and ‘consumerism’ are cultural. #Nostr is changing that toxic culture by building a stronger one.
Lions often hoard kills they can’t finish and will actively guard these carcasses from scavengers like hyenas, even when they no longer need the food. Conversely, hyenas exhibit similar behavior, sometimes stealing kills from lions in large packs.
Squirrels gather and store far more nuts and seeds than they could ever consume in a season. This is known as scatter hoarding, and it often leads to stashes of food being wasted or forgotten.
Seagulls are notorious for stealing food from other birds and humans. They will even fight amongst themselves for a single morsel of food, displaying competitive and greedy behavior.
Hermit crabs constantly seek out larger and better shells, even if their current one is sufficient. They sometimes bully smaller crabs or engage in “shell wars” to take over a better home.
Some honeybee colonies engage in “robbing” behavior by attacking weaker hives to steal their honey stores. These robber bees will sometimes kill or overwhelm the defending hive’s bees.
Magpies are attracted to shiny objects and will often collect and hoard them, even though these objects have no practical value. This behavior might be driven by instinctive curiosity or a form of status signaling.
Some sea otters steal food from one another, often by snatching prey from a fellow otter’s paws. This behavior allows them to avoid the effort of hunting for themselves.
Greed is a basic behavior exhibited by humans as well as many, if not most, animals. Attributing it to culture is incorrect.
Of course, we can't attribute animal (including human) behaviour to culture. Culture IS what we do to channel those instincts. The current paradigm favours devouring the environment that sustains us.
None of the species you mentioned, or any other species that we know, not even parasites, consume to the point where not just the host but the host’s environment, too, collapses. Only viruses do that, and even that is debatable.
It is up to us to change our culture into one that is connected with the world sustaining life—and us—or go extinct.
Personally I think humans are doing an amazing job. Not perfect, but getting better every day.
Perfection is a cultural construct, as is anthropocentrism. The latter may make all other constructs redundant, forever, including itself.
Pleased to hear you're doing well, though. Good to hold a conversation
"And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" ~ Genesis 1:28