Doesn’t it seem like the human species is the most self-destroying of all the animals?
And destroying things like fresh water supplies also counts.
Drugs count as self destroying.
I see it everywhere.
… but they are also the most self creating of all animals.
… and to create, one has to do a little destroying.
How so? Not life-creating, but maybe art creating?
Of all the species, it seems that humans are the one species that takes more pleasure in destroying the ambitions of their enemies than they do in achieving their own ambitions. The only reason the human race advances is because of the few who realize their own subversive nature, the shadow as Jung called it, and make a conscious effort to resist it.
We’re powerful.
With that power, comes a wider range of impact - whether good, or bad.
We can do great stuff and we can do terrible stuff.
The question is how we choose to harness our power, and why we choose so.
We can grow…
There are many ways to look at this question. Phenomenally, or, nominally.
Phenomenally, it’s granted, when man was closer to the animal then to the superman, life was simple, natural and seemingly objective.
As civilization ‘advanced’, and we passed the toward the stage of the human-humanist, and approached the man-superman stage, we started to destruct more of natural habitat, then re-construct them.
So it’s not that destruction is man’s innate tendency, but that , it’s rate of deconstruction exceeds his rate of reconstruction. And it is not an innate tendency, only the sad quasi-table of the Malthusian effects of population growth, caused by stage 2-the effects of humanism via the efficacy of medical treatment.
This is an example of the case, where, doing good, -treating people-converting man powered war craft into machine fought battles, causes the problems associated with increasing population.
Man’s evolving ‘goodness’ causes the opposite effect.
It’s only because we’re crazy.
We’re crazy because of the imagination. The sensible, practical animal that just wants to live now is constantly fighting the imagination that longs to be special and immortal. We can swallow any lie or swindle that starts with: “You win!” It can go on to “God picked you out of all the nations to jump through His hoops” or “A tsunami floats all boats” or “Guaranteed to reduce the look of wrinkles” or “Buy nine cups of crappy overpriced coffee and get a tenth cup of crappy coffee free.” It doesn’t matter; we’ll bite. We’ll never, ever do the necessary math, or ask what the fuck does that actually mean? The practical animal will be told: If you shut up and do whatever daft thing the superego says, you get to eat all the victims.
I don’t know enough about being another species to compare or judge.
Humans (individually) are sometimes self destructing. One person pissing in a stream wouldn’t hurt if there were no other humans to consider. As an entire species, I think we are evolving to be more acutely aware of our self-destruction… but I think this is a good thing.
I think drugs are sometimes not self-destroying. Some substances may draw the fine line between food and drug. A cigarette might help a person with IBS. Perhaps using a drug is an expression of the will when there seems to be a lack of means of self-expression. I think this CAN be a good thing.
My two cents
In his torment and frustration therewith, Man refuses to be bound and thus breaks every law of wisdom and sanity. It is only because of grace that Man survives at all, not counting that he actually progresses toward being the God that he aspires to be (although entirely in futility).
God was once a man like us
He was of course always eternal but did not know it . He created himself in his own image, but that image was only a part of the whole picture. In a realm where time does not exist, He senses at times this eternity where the idea of the one God is also intuited. God is based on his concept of necessity,
This necessity augments a totally reduced phenomenology, which has to end in at least two almost imperceptible beings
It is of their God that is considered necessary for them to exist
Their God is always present when there is at least two of them
This is the indestructible essence of God
Matthew 18:20