Mankind, the Species?
The world we live in contains a dizzying variety of life.
Everything from the smallest to the biggest animal has been identified, scrutinised, categorized and labelled into their respective species and sub-species according to geography, physical properties and behaviour characteristics. Cats and dogs have been identified and labelled according to species from domestic to the wild predator. Birds; we know about all of them from seed eaters to flesh-eating predator birds. We have studied, identified, labelled and categorised ocean life into their different species. Spiders, ants, bugs and animals of every shape and description – all studied, identified and specified. We have applied the same diligent scrutiny to all known plant life. Just about every living organism known to man has been studied, identified, categorized, publicized and the information is readily available to anyone interested.
But not man.
I am speaking of the human’s innate inclination and drive. How man is wired. We have been conditioned by society throughout the ages, to assess and categorize our fellow man according to social status, education, wealth [or lack of it] dress, education, job, perceived personality, and presented character. Other than broadly categorized geographic status, social status, race, gender and physical properties, we really know nothing about man’s instinctive characteristic behaviour. Specifically, why man behaves as he does. I am not talking about the psychology of man. Psychology is a man-made instrument which has instilled commonly accepted, but limited explanations, or ‘blue-prints’ into public minds about what makes man tick.
Can it be that the vastly different behaviour seen in humans is the result of specie or sub-specie specific programming [wiring]? Is it such a leap to consider that man too, may be made up of species and sub-species? A species that is driven to behave according to the dictates of the wiring of their brains, just as all other creatures are? Some creatures are wired to be predators and others are wired to be prey. Just as the lion is wired to stalk and kill prey, or the canary is wired to eat seed only, and the vulture is wired to feast on carrion, or a certain moth is wired to live its entire life cycle in only 24 hours. The list of specie specific behaviour is endless.
But consider the musician, or the neurosurgeon, the artist, the mountain climber, mathematician, physicist, the author, poet, test pilot, submariner, or an air traffic controller to name a few callings. Can everyone become one of these? Would everyone be suited to the job or even WANT or be inclined, to do it? Let’s go further; how about the psychopathic serial murderer, drug lord or bank robber? Is everyone capable? Can anyone be a Ranulph Fiennes, Mozart, Monet, or a Ted Bundy? No. You have to be wired that way. Yes, there may well be many people with these inherent characteristics who because of circumstances or social conditioning, never get to express their true nature, and equally, there are many who may try and never succeed naturally, simply because it is not in their nature. You can teach an elephant to become a circus trick star but that is not the elephant’s natural inclination. Square peg in a round hole. Just as the leopard or lion is ‘wired’ to be a predator, so too are the Ted Bundy’s of this world wired to kill. I believe neither could deny their natural inclinations – or specie specific wiring – even if they wanted to.
If we can suspend for a moment all our pre-conceived, indoctrinated notions about what we think we know about humans, ignore race, religion, geography, family unit, the need to conform, etc., and cast our mind’s eye over the broad spectrum of mankind: the doers, the thinkers, bottom feeders, the weak, the strong, poor, rich, humble, the predators, the prey, warrior types, pacifists and too many other types to list here, you may begin to recognize innate characteristics of the different species and sub-species of mankind. It cuts across every strata of society irrespective of social status or family genes. You will find a hobo mentality in upper management if you dig beneath the veneer and you will find a paedophile preaching in a church every Sunday. Could this explain the birth of a genius into a family of average intelligence, or the spawning of a serial killer into an upper middle class family, or those who will always need to be led and those born to lead? Could it be that there are different species of mankind?
Just thoughts from my curious mind…
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