If only this goodness could grow with us |
Yuval Noah Harari’s celebrated
book, Sapiens, ends with a pregnant question: “Is there anything more
dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they
want?” We, human beings, are those dissatisfied and irresponsible gods. We
evolved a long way from our ancient simian ancestor. We became gods, so to say.
We are able to transmute nature’s creations.
Harari gives the example of
the giraffe. The long neck of the giraffe was a product of evolution by natural
selection. “Nobody, certainly not the giraffes, said, ‘A long neck would enable
giraffes to munch leaves off the treetops. Let’s extend it.’” But today a
scientist can do such intelligent designing.
Twenty years ago, Eduardo Kac
created a fluorescent green rabbit in the laboratory with the help of science.
A gene from a green fluorescent jellyfish was implanted in an ordinary white
rabbit embryo and the outcome was the green fluorescent rabbit which was named
Alba.
Harari calls man “the animal
that became god”. A dangerous god nonetheless.
Decades ago Arthur Koestler
pointed out the terrible anomaly about human evolution. When our simian
ancestor descended from the tree and started walking on two legs, a revolution
began in evolution. It was the birth of a creature that would evolve into the most
deadly and pernicious animal on earth: man.
What went wrong in that
evolution?
The brain evolved but the
heart did not. That is Koestler’s conclusion. Our brain evolved and continues
to evolve. So we are able to create better and better technology. We can
explore the stars lying billions of kilometres away in the space. We know all
about the little world lying within a microscopic atom. We can even create new
species of animals. We are gods of sorts.
Yet our hearts remain as
primitive as our savage ancestor. Our hearts haven’t evolved. They still carry
the lust and greed and jealousy and aggression of that savage.
Many people succeed in keeping
the inner savage under control with the help of religion, literature, art, music,
etc. A lot more refinement is required, however. A lot, lot more.
Our hearts need to evolve. But
nobody out there is going to say, “Some refinement of the heart will make the
human beings much better creatures. So let’s do that.” No, there’s no one
anywhere there in the infinite spaces going to work any such miracle. We have
to do it ourselves.
Science is capable of doing
such things. But there are obvious risks. We are reminded of all the
Frankensteins of science fiction. We can create a green fluorescent rabbit for
the fun of it. But tampering with the human heart is a different matter.
But we can choose to work on
our own hearts. We can mellow the bitterness, the despair, and all ill
feelings. We can work on our own hearts. That is totally up to us. Therein lies
our salvation too.
PS. Written for Indispire Edition 353: "The salvation of this
human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to
reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility." Vaclav Havel said.
Your reflection? #BetterLife
I have had a similar thought once,that even if all people are called unique there exists an animal in everybody and it's their character that keeps that animal caged. I wish to ask the same question why do we still carry those animals why don't we just kill them.
ReplyDeleteThat put me in another terrible situation, killing the animal is like killing our emotions so, what should I do, kill them and act like machines or keep them caged and live a hard life controlling them. I want to end this long comment of mine with one last thought, it's true that animals can be trained but most children hate school you know that right...
Phew... (I mean it sounds like a lot of work but that did came out of me)
The animal in us can't be killed perhaps. It can only be tamed. That's tough, as you say. Even now, at the age of 60, I find it hard to keep my inner demon under leash. But I try my best. The results aren't too bad.
DeleteExcellent Post
ReplyDelete