Humankind is one of those books that comes along and really makes you look at the world a little differently. I’m a bit of a pessimist. Always have been. So my general view of the species is that we are all self-centred parasites hell-bent on draining everything good from every environment and person we thoughtlessly stumble upon. But that was before...
No, I still believe that. This book didn’t really alter my mind that much. There’s got to be a limit to an open mind. You can read a book, but at the end of the day, afterwards, you still have to live in the same world you’ve experienced for however many years. And 426 pages, however well written, won’t shift the weight of personal experience.
That said, I do think that I understand a little more about human nature now. And a lot of the recent happenings, the whole Covid fiasco, has shown humanity at its best and worst. But if you think about it. We did pretty well. For every news story about some prick hitting the motorway to hit up some castle with his family, there were hundreds of thousands of people sat at home.
It’s the same with the news in general. I look at that differently now, because of the book. I try to keep in mind that there are a million or more examples of people not being awful for every news report about a bunch of kids kicking in an old man.
It doesn’t absolve us of the capacity for evil. But it is worth keeping the kindness in mind. Makes me a lot less depressed.
More of a detailed review, after that tangent...
The book gives a lot of scientific and historic examples of the way humans behave in times of crisis. There’s a strong point made that we developed in a really interesting way. To co-operate and also to compete. We seem to be divisively tribal. But at the same time, if we are placed into a situation of great peril, we tend to help each other out. Floods, shipwrecks, earthquakes, terror attacks... endless examples of people helping each other. Even in war, there are examples like Gettysburg. They excavated 27,574 rifles. Of the weapons that were salvaged, an incredible 24,000 rifles were still loaded (that’s either 87%) Of the total number, half had been loaded more than once, and a quarter had been reloaded multiple times. Apparently, one poor soldier had reloaded his weapon twenty-three times, but the weird thing is that he never fired a single shot. Apparently, soldiers don’t like shooting at the enemy and the best way not to face a court-martial was to look like you weren’t shooting because you were busy reloading. So no one would know.
Apparently we developed to be cute looking, rather than ferocious. Kindness brings out big eyes, rounded teeth and soft voices. The author compares us to the dogs that developed from wolves.
I’d say that this was required reading for anyone who is pessimistic about humanity and needs a little pick me up.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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