What We Get Wrong About Human Nature

What does it mean to be human? Join me as I explore the many interpretations of human nature across various philosophies and delve into the true breadth of human possibilities.

Thanks to @COLORMIND.mp4 for lending his voice and ideas to the skit!

The list of artists used is in the outro.

Introduction - 0:00
Philosophies of Human Nature - 3:05
Musical Chairs Battle Royale - 9:25
Human Possibilities - 12:36
Outro - 19:23

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Music:
@ForeignManinaForeignLand
Sun (prod. salmon the ghost)
outro music: Cedar Womb by joe zempel
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Sources & Resources:
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

[Andrewism]

Happy new year! Those of you who have been here from the very beginning may recall that I've already done a video on the subject, back in 2020. That video is now unlisted (but still accessible through one of my playlists). With over two years of experience making videos now, I realised I had a bit more to say and I wanted to say some of the things I already said differently. Hope you all enjoy it!

[othelliusmaximus]

Barely 12 seconds into the first video of the first 11 days of new year and Drew already hitting us with a full on identity crisis. Lets get into it.

[FearlessSon]

"The world will descend into chaos without the state!"

"... did the state tell you that?"

[OutlawMaxV]

While there's no shortage of philosophers of Anarchism, quite few can put into words this incredibly complex theme and make it sound easy to understand and listen. Love you.

[ForeignManinaForeignLand]

Love how I get two notifications for Andrew; one for being mentioned in the description and one for post notifications. It's like two alarms 😅

[colingallagher]

Empathy for others especially in the group is such a basic human emotion that is even primary to mammals and other animals in general and quite possibly all of life.

[btarczy]

The gentleness of the vocal delivery in combination with the beautiful art truly makes this channel stand out. Amazing work!

The belief in a rigid human nature is one of those bedrocks of hierarchical thinking that falls apart on closer inspection yet is so easily promoted.

When we hear news about a catastrophe the focus lies heavily on the institutional response as well as opportunistic crime. The reasons for the crime and the many acts of kindness and cooperation are little more than footnotes, if that.

Hmm… Strangely enough that narrative does sometimes change when a disaster happens in a developed country. I wonder why.

[robertborland]

This is a solid analysis. I am reminded of the quote from the introduction of Davids Wengrow and Graeber's The Dawn of Everything; "It follows that arguing about whether humans are fundamentally good or evil makes about as much sense as arguing about whether humans are fundamentally fat or thin."

EDIT: Wow! I did not notice The Dawn of Everything was a source for the video when I wrote the comment, but now I can see how some of the themes came up in the video. Again, I really dig the excellent analysis.

[ericrae]

Our greatest evolutionary strength is our ability to cooperate. Does that make it part of human nature? I would say yes.

[Len]

"I am because we are" is a beautiful phrase.

[alphabetadams]

‘We are not hateful creatures,
We are good. Our goodness screams for peace.
Everything that’s happened can be felt.
Each mouth deserves to speak
Whichever words come to it in the throws of truthful feeling.
But instead
We plunge to numbness.
It’s much safer, safety’s so appealing’
Radical Empathy, Kae Tempest.

I struggle fully accepting that humans have an engrained nature towards empathy, I struggle with the logic of that, but I adore the sentiment. So much of what we think is natural is only necessary because we are forced into action and belief. Beneath the confines of the systems of our upbringing, there is an empathy and a desire for peace that is constantly crushed and rejected because it is so difficult to enact in our societies. Thank you for this video, so far it’s been great, I’m sure it’ll be enlightening by the end :)

[Arithryka]

We are born of one breath, one word
We are all one spark, eyes full of wonder

[terastodon]

Great video! I learned about the Akan philosophy of personhood in college and it's really great to hear about the parallels found in other distinct cultures! The Kropotkin quote was sick too!

[molemo]

Just a quick note that while the notion of "ubuntu philosophy" is first developed in the 50s. Ubuntu is an age old cosmology, carried within oral history traditions. Its earliest refrences in text appear in the early 19th century.
Xx from 🇿🇦
always love your work

[coyoten]

thank you for summing up Animism so well, i hadnt realized that that was the right word for how i feel

[sheepcommander_]

holy shit the musical chairs bit is insane

[ShawolsStartedIt]

I’m currently living abroad, but your videos make me SO excited to move back home and start my own community based projects! I know it won’t be easy, but even just the idea that we could get more in touch with the environment we live in and the peoples that live beside us gives me the encouragement to try! All power to all the people 💕

[shashooitznc]

As an aspiring author I relate to this discussion so much. I have so much anger for what we do to our world but we also create art, literature, we make huge selfless sacrifices for those we love, we are curious and want to explore and it feels wrong to perpetuate the "we are cancer/virus" narrative or saying that we are forever doomed to be soulless consumers. There's so much more to humanity, we all just need to learn and help each other learn how to nurture those better sides of ourselves.

[musicdev]

Damn, that section at 9:25 is too real, especially the Chairs for Africa. Modern life has truly turned into an absurd, brutal caricature of itself

[norml.hugh-mann]

We seek safety but at the same time we are the reason none of us are safe.