What is it about humans? What drives the vast majority of humans to do nothing? What is the motivation behind complacency? Why do humans always tend toward conservatism more often than liberalism? Why are humans more attracted to a strongman than a Jesus Christ-type? (And don’t be fooled by Christianity, for most “Christians” hardly understand Jesus’ teachings, let alone follow his example.) Why is it easier for humans to hate than to love? Why? Why? Why?
Needless to say, I have thoughts! I want to understand people at the most fundamental level. So, strip away the notion of morality (religion). Ignore social conventions and contrivances. Discard the sciences of psychology, sociology, politics, and economics, for these are all derivations of man seeking to bring order to the cacophony of human actions and interactions. These social sciences are merely artificial interpretations, applying a subjective structure to chaos. (To clarify, I have a degree in economics, so I believe in the power of market theories and the motivations of homo economicus — to a point.) However, these sciences are nothing more than an artifice used to describe human behavior, often comprising theories that possess so many exceptions, contradictory postulates, and caveats that any one field, taken in total, describes too much yet explains nothing — predicting everything and predicting nothing.
What remains when we dispense with these theories of the social sciences? Perhaps we are left with biology, which, as a descriptive science, may suffer from the same pitfalls as the above social sciences. Although I should think biology is far less a normative science than a positive one. I view biology and physics in much the same way; they have immutable laws and properties. (However, the field of quantum physics can only describe the probability of an event occurring, rather than providing a bedrock foundation of nature governed by certainty. As it turns out, God does play dice.)
Nonetheless, allow me to take a chance and reduce human biology to its irreducible elements — or, more specifically, the one element that comes to mind. Over my years and years of observing humans, I think I can safely say homo erectus, like all the itterations of homo that have come before, exists to survive and reproduce (and build things — humans like to build, including wealth, hence, the field of economics). It’s that simple. (Yes, yes. I can hear the screams of “exceptions” because biology produces homosexuals who have no chance of reproduction. I suppose caveats are unavoidable everywhere. Exceptions are the metaphor of rolling snake-eyes versus any other desired combination.)
While social science theories attempt to describe (and prescribe) the purpose of humans who are simply trying to make sense of their interactions with the world around them, let’s face it, most people really don’t try to “make sense” of the world beyond their immediate universe. That is to say, they concern themselves only with how their individual actions impact them and their clan. (Yes, clan. Not fellow citizens or colleagues. Just blood relations, and even that dedication diminished as the purity of the blood connection adulterates.) The broader examination of humanity is primarily left to the philosophers among us. The vast, vast majority of humans are merely worker ants. Allow me also to speculate further — and here, alas, is my main point — to survive and reproduce, biology demands that humans conserve energy. It is this impulse to do as little as possible to survive and thrive that I believe underpins all human behavior. Acquiring energy is costly. Expending energy also comes at a cost. We expend energy to obtain more of it (through hunting and gathering food), to protect what we have (by building shelter), and to consolidate and amplify our energy gains (through clan affiliation and cooperation). What we may perceive as familial connections, intimate relationships, market forces, political affiliations, and so on, are nothing more than a biological need to conserve, preserve, and amplify energy, allowing humans to survive and reproduce.
What is the easiest way to conserve, preserve, and amplify energy? Do as little as possible. Be lazy. There is a reason troops of apes and monkeys spend most of their time sitting around doing nothing. Dare I say translate this notion of being the least energetic as possible through a political science lens, and what you get is a theory of conservatism, literally and figuratively. Humans revert to what has already been done. They return to something easy and familiar by doing that which requires the least effort — politically. People prefer to be led (ruled) by a paternal strongman (king, autocrat, dictator — take your pick) who will take away their needless thinking, for brain power requires energy. Humans prefer to be told what to do and how to cognate, for making decisions beyond what to eat, who to f***, and where to sleep again requires more energy than the alternative: reasoning and questioning. (Hence, the gullibility of humans to be religious.) Furthermore, it is easier to hate than to love. It is far easier to point to a person or a group and say no than it is to look to the same group and say maybe or yes, for yes requires understanding.
Understanding requires thinking about the “other”; questioning the “other”; comparing, reconciling, and assimilating differences with the “other”; seeking commonalities and identifying patterns with the “other” — all higher-level functions of the brain, which expend more energy. It’s easier to shun and not think about “others.” It’s easier to be stupid and mindless. It’s easier to go along to get along. Protesting is hard. Rocking the boat is a risky effort that may waste energy. Some may argue that cooperation is a synergistic effort, thereby amplifying the collective’s use of energy. That is a fair point, but cooperation among non-kin may require those higher-level brain functions described above and therefore inhibit the desired benefits because cooperation is too difficult and costly to initiate in the first place. I could go on and maybe one day I will expend the energy and effort to do so, but at this point I feel like stopping and returning to a state of doing nothing. Carville coined the phrase, “The economy, stupid.” Perhaps it’s the energy, stupid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯