Is humanity really a blight upon Earth?
Sacha Hammond ponders a question that has foxed philosophers for thousands of years: is humanity inherently good or inevitably destructive?
Is humanity good or evil? It’s a question I’ve asked myself as well as all my friends and family, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that we’re good. After all, every day the news bombards us with accounts of unspeakable atrocities of our own making. Genocide, mass shootings, theft, hate crimes - to a point where we seem to think things like this happen all the time. And to an extent they do, but of all the millions of things happening all across the world at any given moment, notice how we only get told about one or two a day.
I can guarantee you that the few events we do hear about are the most drastic and dire because they draw the most attention. Every day there are examples of compassion, progress and selflessness that never get picked up on. There was a study conducted by Cambridge University in 2015 monitoring the moods of two different samples, one that watched the News every day, and another which didn’t. They were then asked to describe their mental state and to give a definite answer on whether or not mankind was inherently good or evil. The news watchers were distinctly less happy and nearly all of them seemed to think we were satanic, selfish scumbags. The ones who didn’t watch the news not only came out happier, but they were also convinced that nearly everyone is good deep down. Now I’m not saying everyone should avoid the news - nor am I saying is good – in fact, I’m already gearing up for someone to ask, “What about Hitler?” - but as a whole, it could definitely be argued that humanity is much more inclined to positivity and progress than evil.
It’s not just the news pedalling the vision about what monsters we are - history books are among the biggest culprits. There are countless examples of us embracing community and hope even at the darkest points in our history. For example: The Blitz. The Nazi scheme to pulverize British morale once and for all.
All over our country, homes and landmarks were reduced to rubble - but if anything, our morale was only strengthened. Whereas Hitler predicted looting, revolution, and general uproar, what he accidentally triggered was a nationwide reminder to look out for others. Every morning we’d come out and survey the damage, dropping all our plans to give the newly homeless a room, give our neighbours a hand fixing their roofs, drive the injured to the nearest hospital or provide whatever medical attention we could. There’s a particularly poignant photo of a baker running a “free bread” stall round the front of his collapsed bakery. This wasn’t just a case of the classic British stiff upper lip, the same thing was happening all across Europe, in Germany, France, The Netherlands - the bombings led to a renaissance of good deeds.
The other bit of evidence that people always use to back up the evil argument is William Golding’s classic, “Lord of the Flies”. It entails a compelling argument about evil through the exploration of the exploits of a group of British schoolboys who end up marooned on an island with no grown-ups and abundant resources. Golding predicted that it would take hardly any time at all for the boys to divide, hoard resources, steal from one another and eventually resort to murder. At the end, the main character Ralph famously weeps for “The end of innocence and the darkness in man’s heart”. This book was celebrated as a pseudo-thesis on man’s true nature – it even went on to win a Nobel Prize.
Whilst there are no historic examples that completely align to Golding’s fiction, I was able to find a story from 1967, about a group of Tongan boarding-school boys, between the ages of thirteen and sixteen who ended up marooned on a desert island after their fishing boat got caught in storm. They were there for fifteen months before being miraculously saved by a wandering sailor. During that time, the boys made a pact to never argue: any disagreements would be dealt with by each walking to opposite ends of the island for an hour or two then apologizing. They all managed to survive their time on the island, they’d carved out trees to store water in, they’d constructed weatherproof shelters, whole allotments of crops, a makeshift guitar to sing songs every evening and even a tennis court. The captain who rescued them is still best friends with the eldest boy, and they live on a farm together out in Australia.
Neither of those stories have been heavily reported on – despite the hopeful message it conveys about humanity’s true nature - and perhaps that's because crime and drama sell news stories. And actually newspapers aren't interested in furthering humanity; they're interested in making money. But I can guarantee you if you'd pay attention in your day-to-day life, you’ll see more hugs than fights.
Sacha Hammond, Year 12
Is humanity good or evil? It’s a question I’ve asked myself as well as all my friends and family, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that we’re good. After all, every day the news bombards us with accounts of unspeakable atrocities of our own making. Genocide, mass shootings, theft, hate crimes - to a point where we seem to think things like this happen all the time. And to an extent they do, but of all the millions of things happening all across the world at any given moment, notice how we only get told about one or two a day.
I can guarantee you that the few events we do hear about are the most drastic and dire because they draw the most attention. Every day there are examples of compassion, progress and selflessness that never get picked up on. There was a study conducted by Cambridge University in 2015 monitoring the moods of two different samples, one that watched the News every day, and another which didn’t. They were then asked to describe their mental state and to give a definite answer on whether or not mankind was inherently good or evil. The news watchers were distinctly less happy and nearly all of them seemed to think we were satanic, selfish scumbags. The ones who didn’t watch the news not only came out happier, but they were also convinced that nearly everyone is good deep down. Now I’m not saying everyone should avoid the news - nor am I saying is good – in fact, I’m already gearing up for someone to ask, “What about Hitler?” - but as a whole, it could definitely be argued that humanity is much more inclined to positivity and progress than evil.
It’s not just the news pedalling the vision about what monsters we are - history books are among the biggest culprits. There are countless examples of us embracing community and hope even at the darkest points in our history. For example: The Blitz. The Nazi scheme to pulverize British morale once and for all.
All over our country, homes and landmarks were reduced to rubble - but if anything, our morale was only strengthened. Whereas Hitler predicted looting, revolution, and general uproar, what he accidentally triggered was a nationwide reminder to look out for others. Every morning we’d come out and survey the damage, dropping all our plans to give the newly homeless a room, give our neighbours a hand fixing their roofs, drive the injured to the nearest hospital or provide whatever medical attention we could. There’s a particularly poignant photo of a baker running a “free bread” stall round the front of his collapsed bakery. This wasn’t just a case of the classic British stiff upper lip, the same thing was happening all across Europe, in Germany, France, The Netherlands - the bombings led to a renaissance of good deeds.
The other bit of evidence that people always use to back up the evil argument is William Golding’s classic, “Lord of the Flies”. It entails a compelling argument about evil through the exploration of the exploits of a group of British schoolboys who end up marooned on an island with no grown-ups and abundant resources. Golding predicted that it would take hardly any time at all for the boys to divide, hoard resources, steal from one another and eventually resort to murder. At the end, the main character Ralph famously weeps for “The end of innocence and the darkness in man’s heart”. This book was celebrated as a pseudo-thesis on man’s true nature – it even went on to win a Nobel Prize.
Whilst there are no historic examples that completely align to Golding’s fiction, I was able to find a story from 1967, about a group of Tongan boarding-school boys, between the ages of thirteen and sixteen who ended up marooned on a desert island after their fishing boat got caught in storm. They were there for fifteen months before being miraculously saved by a wandering sailor. During that time, the boys made a pact to never argue: any disagreements would be dealt with by each walking to opposite ends of the island for an hour or two then apologizing. They all managed to survive their time on the island, they’d carved out trees to store water in, they’d constructed weatherproof shelters, whole allotments of crops, a makeshift guitar to sing songs every evening and even a tennis court. The captain who rescued them is still best friends with the eldest boy, and they live on a farm together out in Australia.
Neither of those stories have been heavily reported on – despite the hopeful message it conveys about humanity’s true nature - and perhaps that's because crime and drama sell news stories. And actually newspapers aren't interested in furthering humanity; they're interested in making money. But I can guarantee you if you'd pay attention in your day-to-day life, you’ll see more hugs than fights.
Sacha Hammond, Year 12