The Beast from Within

Sometimes I hear the expression "inhumane". Supposedly this implies that the action deemed as such involves something vulgar, violent and undesirable towards another human being. The truth is that what we label as inhumane is actually the very thing that makes us human. The state in which we are now, or rather, most of the time in the western world, is nothing close to a homo sapiens striving for survival. Actually, we are worse than inhumane.

To debunk the notion of "inhumanity" we have to search a bit further from home. For example, lets consider cats, a species which can be domesticated but also experienced in its feral and wild state. A wild cat will be brutal in order to survive. It will fight to the death, gang up with other groups for resources and be violent most of the day. If its a male, it will most likely kill all male kittens in the vicinity and as a kitten will step on the throat of its brothers and sisters in order to survive.

Now, take the same species and add one single variable to the equation and the entire behavior changes. Supply the same colony of cats with enough resources and they become pacified, lazy, fat and pretty much fall out of touch with their very nature. Their instincts become awry, their reactions predictable. They almost become a different animal.

This creates a rather peculiar situation in our narrative about "humane" vs "inhumane". In our example, the well fed cat and human are nothing like their original nature. Today, all humane humans resemble pet cats. Feral and wild cats live in nature and struggle for survival on a daily basis. Similarly, in some parts of our planet, humans struggle daily to survive and we act and behave nothing like them. They remain brutal and aggressive, much like all kids when they antagonize each other when they are young. Their instincts are alive and kicking.

In our western world this inhumanity is rarely seen. Since our basic needs are satisfied, we turn towards other realms to show our claws to each other. The economic system has gradually become this very battle ground where we all fight for magical papers and metals in order to claim superiority over one another. The same equation still applies as before. The self and the family matters the most, then the greater clan, then the outer group and then the country.

Let's imagine a feral cat that forgot how to hunt because it has been introduced to the magical world of trading. No longer it would need to scavenge for food or fight for scrubs. It could sit in front of the computer, form circles of influence, inherit some money from its clan and start trading the alley, the trash cans, the scrubs that are being thrown out.

After a few generations of concentration of wealth, our trader cat with a click of a mouse could end the livelihood of thousands of cats across the world. Cats that it would never meet because the computer has made this slaughter a non-personal event. The other cats would just starve to death by either alley wars due to limited resources, disease or plain old famine. It would then go on and troll on twitter, boasting about how smart it was to "dump on the noob cats".

We like to think ourselves as humane because we wear ties and trade the fortunes of billions of people in front of a magical screen that adds and subtracts numbers. We like to believe that we have "evolved" into higher beings when in reality we are still stealing scrubs and fight for resources in much the same way. Many would argue that this is not the same because the thought of actually pushing the missile button vs adding a few hundred steps in between via other people removes one from the situation completely. Remember those investigations where is nobody's fault because everyone was following a set of orders made from everyone else? Same principle applies.

Let's delve a little deeper with this and examine the act of killing. Using one's very hands is the hardest since it is the most personal. Using a knife become less personal but there is still proximity that makes it a rather personal event. A gun is far less personal since the distance increases. Still personal though because you can often see the person you are attacking. As we move further away we come to poison, which can be placed and then escape the scene. Far less personal, much less impact. Paying someone else to kill for you, even less personal. Stealing money through the markets via scams that can cause a family to starve, collapse economies and bring wars, even less personal.

Our "humane" law likes to treat wrong-doing based on proximity. The more steps one adds in between themselves and the victim, the less likely are connections to be made and the individual to be found guilty. This also happens because of our monkey brain that can only grasp small circles of relationships. The term "monkey sphere" describes the phenomenon. We can only "love" or "consider" a limited number of people around us. This is the reason we feel sorry or upset for something happening in our neighborhood or someone we know even by face vs some random person on tv. This is also why mass murders like Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Hitler or Bush are going to remain heroes because they "managed" the extermination of many people. People we could not possibly rationalize dying one by one. They almost seem like abstractions of awe. We feel much less for their action than we would if we saw someone on tv murder an innocent child. This is why deficient our sense of responsibility is. This is how rudimentary and devoid our emotions are.

And this brings us to the main reason of our latest and most gruesome brutality towards other human beings. None of us, not even the victims themselves can grasp how a few clicks on a trading screen can result into drones launching missiles into someone's home. In our tiny world of crypto, how one click reduces the savings of someone who believed in the new money that he heard they call "Bitcoin". The "thing" that would save him from the current system.

We use advertisements, shilling and promos in order to deceive others and sell them a dream. This is no surprise since deception is the only game in town when it comes to other species as well. They might use a camouflaged fur or a tweeting lullaby to lure a mate or trap a prey but the process is much the same.

Everything changes but everything remains the same when it comes to nature. We are still inhumane, hungry and we will step on the throats of each other if the resources run dry. Friends that hang out together in crypto will begin dumping on each other if the music stops playing - even if all believed in the crypto revolution. In much the same way, cats will fight over scrubs and kill each other if the lady that feeds them goes away.

We live in a time of crypto revolution while at the same time we experience the rest of the economic world flirting with collapse. Just sit and think about how different the new system is. Do you really want to live in a different world or do you want to be part of the same game but on a different, emerging league where you also move the strings? How bad are really the current overlords with their market manipulation and their domino effect actions that cause famine, wars and bring misery to millions. Are you going to be any different? Did any of the above thoughts crossed your mind while you where buying and selling scams?

Have you thought how you might have caused similar misery to lets say a father of three that put their life savings into a project you shilled in order to dump it on his ass? Probably not because it was his fault for being an idiot right? He should have took care of himself. You are not responsible. You are just a guy in front of a computer playing with imaginary money. This is how life is. You are a humane being playing by the same rules. You are a good guy. You will make a few trades, chat a bit, joke, watch a movie, socialize and never think about how all those numbers are generated. There are no faces across that screen, no trail of responsibility. Just you. The good guy.