Skip to main content

The Error Called Man


Arthur Koestler considered man an evolutionary blunder.  The lion’s share of the wealth we create is spent in war, terrorism and other destructive activities.  We have infinite gods with countless priests and yet we are not able to surmount the unbounded hatred we carry inside our little hearts.  We work miracles with science and technology but remain crude brutes deep inside us.  Is it all because of some evolutionary error?

Arthur Koestler
Koestler believed it was.  There is “a screw loose in the human mind,” he wrote in his book, The Ghost in the Machine.  He called the Homo Sapiens a "biological freak, the result of some remarkable mistake in the evolutionary process."  It is because the ape began to walk on two legs too quickly.  The whole mutation took place in too short a time for the human heart to change significantly.  The reasoning brain evolved, but the heart remained savage.  That’s what Koestler says.

Koestler relied on neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean’s model of the human brain for his arguments.  According to MacLean, three brains coexist in the human skull: a primitive reptilian one, another inherited from the lower mammals, and the really human one.  These brains function more or less autonomously.  Consequently we, human beings, see the world through two different lenses: a very primitive one which has not evolved much from the brains of the snakes and the donkeys, and the other thinking, reasoning, evolved brain.  Unfortunately, the snake and the donkey inside us insist on imposing their perceptions as the truths on us.  The result is a form of schizophysiology and the crude animal brain makes us delusional mass murderers.

 
Paul D. MacLean
Mooted in the 1960s, MacLean’s theory has been studied in greater detail later and has many takers today in various sciences including psychology.  It has a good number of detractors too.  My knowledge of science being highly limited, I shall not weigh the scientific merits of MacLean’s brain model.  But I think it can make us think about ourselves in a different light.  It can make us think about why we continue to invest in war materials more than peace and compassion.  About why we choose to divide us into Hindus and Muslims, the elite and the untouchable, Ramzade and Haramzade...


Labels:

Comments

  1. i b aroraApril 9, 2016 at 9:26 AM

    may be man is a product of some experiments carried out by aliens; experiments that went wrong

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 9, 2016 at 9:32 AM

      Interestingly, Koestler recommended a genetic mutation as a remedy for the error. But experiments at that level are more likely to go wrong!

      Delete
  2. Ravish ManiApril 9, 2016 at 5:32 PM

    The only reason we divide is to rule/domesticate and it begins with the division of nature and culture.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 9, 2016 at 8:36 PM

      Very true. The hunger for power is more demanding than the hunger for food. Power will bring everything else!

      Delete
  3. UnknownApril 10, 2016 at 8:22 AM

    We haven't progressed much from our primitive days. The quest for power can be explained partly by animal instincts and territorial behaviour. Problem also is social and cultural mores have often been manipulated by the powerful to keep a hold on the masses

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 10, 2016 at 8:40 AM

      I find myself agreeing with you on a lot of points, Lata, including the ones I read elsewhere. Probably, we think on similar wavelengths.

      Power motif is something that I have been working on for months now. I think power has become the basic drive now that poverty and hunger are not a serious problem for most. Even the religious people are trying to acquire power when they grab lands, show off mighty fan (devotee?) following, set us business empires... Power brings everything else.

      Even culture, the way it is being manipulated today in India, is a tool for garnering more power.

      Delete
  4. Kala RaviApril 10, 2016 at 8:32 AM

    Hmm, the donkey and the snake still rule the roost in most of mankind methinks after reading about Maclean's theory! A very interesting perspective that offers a perspective to justify the schizo physiological human behavior acting on a self-destruct mode!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 10, 2016 at 8:41 AM

      MacLean's perspective can explain a lot of things easily. I'm not sure how far science has accepted the theory. But I find it explaining a lot of human behaviour. You too seem to find it equally acceptable.

      Delete
  5. KalpanaApril 13, 2016 at 2:22 PM

    Koestler's theory makes a lot of sense. The heart remained savage. That explains a lot, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 13, 2016 at 8:39 PM

      The theory is vindicated by observation whatever science may say about it.

      Delete
  6. UppalApril 26, 2016 at 8:07 PM

    Thought provoking article!

    ReplyDelete
  7. JiggyasaApril 29, 2016 at 5:29 PM

    "Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion" I still remember this quote by Mr. Koestler. He words, often harsh do make a lot of sense. Wonderful Write up sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 30, 2016 at 7:05 AM

      Thank you, Jig. We are still savages at heart, according to Koestler. Many people can't accept that, I guess.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

Maveli in the Pothole Republic

Illustration by Copilot Designer I was trying to navigate the moonscape they call a ‘national highway’ when my shoe vanished into a crater big enough to host the G20 summit. Out of it rose a tall figure, crowned and regal, though with a slight limp. “Maveli!” I exclaimed. “Yes,” he said grimly. “Your roads are terrible. I thought the netherworld was bad, but this—this is hell on asphalt.” I helped him up. “Don’t worry, Maveli, our leaders say we’re heading toward becoming a global economic superpower. See, even Donald Trump is impotent before our might.”   Maveli frowned. “Yes, yes. I saw your leader guffawing in the company of Putin and Xi Jinping. When he’s in the company of world leaders, he behaves like a little boy who’s got his coveted toy.” “Are you a little jealous of him, Maveli?” I asked. “I have reasons to be, but I’m not. Let him enjoy his limelight. A day will come when history will put its merciless foot on his head and send him to his own Patala.” Tha...
8 comments
Read more

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...
16 comments
Read more