ANIMAL INSTINCT

6/25/23

All human folly can be traced to the triumph of ancient urges over reason. All human transcendence can be traced to the domestication of those urges. 

The fascist is one who falls victim to the ancient urges of violence and in-group chauvinism. 

The conspiracy theorist is one who falls victim to the ancient struggle for survival, and whose heightened paranoia stems from that struggle. 

The drunkard has been enslaved by the ancient reward circuitry in his brain, designed to help him seek food and reproduce.

The superstitious, like a frightened animal, tries to make sense of a complex and dangerous world he doesn’t understand.

The list can go on, but there’s no need to complete it here. The human condition is that we’re evolved apes, but apes nonetheless. 

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