Michael Brown

Human Survival? Michael Brown

Humanity faces a crisis unprecedented in biological history which will prove catastrophic unless wemake radical changes. It arises from profound incompatibility between our evolutionary background and our socially disconnected, modern life.

Modern humans inherit instincts that promoted survival for pre-human apes living with their leaders in small, close groups of about forty in trees. We share these instincts, along with the human impulses towards altruism, empathy, art, sculpture, poetry, music and dance. However, we commonly no longer live in close groups in trees, but in cities of huge populations, typically disconnected from those who lead us.

Worldwide, we need to find ways to come together, to recognise and control basic instincts, notably regarding territory, fear of the foreign, including the foreignness of the other gender, and 'alpha' males.

Worldwide, we must encourage expression of the human instincts of art, sculpture, poetry, music and dance in every walk of life, and live in ways that foster empathy and altruism.

Worldwide we need to learn from the insights of the original cultural and religious sages, rather than edicts from the later corporate institutions emphasising institutional survival. Paradoxically, in our modern world and in defiance of these sages, these edicts serve to protect the religious institution at huge risk to the survival of humanity.