To harness our best selves, “Temper your empathy, train your compassion, and avoid the news”

In the novel Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are shipwrecked on an island and eventually turn savagely against each other. The book is a cautionary tale about humanity’s underlying cruelty and the need for civilization to tame our darker impulses—a message that resonates with many people today. But that’s not what happened to a real-life group of shipwrecked kids in 1965. Unlike the fictional Lord of the Flies characters, they developed a game plan for survival that was cooperative, fun, and peaceful, resulting in lifelong friendships. In other words, the boys didn’t turn into devils when left on their own—far from it! Dutch historian Rutger Bregman recounts this story in his new book Humankind: A Hopeful History, arguing against the Lord of the Flies’s unreasonably dim picture of humanity. The key message in Bregman’s book is that humans are basically good, when left to their own devices. That’s not to say there aren’t characters who will act badly, especially if encouraged (or manipulated) to do so or when under duress. But the vast majority of us are happy to work together cooperatively. This, he writes, is the only possible conclusion to make from the scientific and historical evidence. And, he argues, it’s something we desperately need to understand if we want to work together toward creating a better society for all. How we get it wrong Some of the most famous evidence for our pessimistic view of human nature comes from the Stanford Prison E...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness brain-damaging stress coronavirus humankind Lord of the Flies mental health mental hygiene mindfulness Rutger Bregman Source Type: blogs