LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARM!: LET US FIGHT THE PERVERSE NARCISSISM WE ALL HAVE

Something that causes a great deal of harm is the perverse narcissism inherent to the human species. I mean the typical belief that we are the coolest thing in creation, superior to other species, races, or peoples, and that we therefore have the right to use and abuse them, to exploit and mistreat them. Sometimes it is even accompanied by the idea that we can do whatever we want with them, as the Romans did with the “barbarians” and white people did with black people.

Unfortunately, I grew up in such a society, to the point that it was normalized to abuse and torture non-human animals purely for entertainment, as in bullfighting, throwing goats from the church bell tower, or pulling living geese by the neck until it breaks. For years, all of that also seemed normal to me, as part of that collective psychopathy, however much I now feel ashamed and horrified at the same time.

It is striking that Homo sapiens have such a high opinion of ourselves and think we are the last Coca-Cola in the desert. And it is also striking that we have such a low opinion of other species, given that humankind is the one that has committed—and continues to commit—the most cruelty, atrocities, and evil, by a wide margin compared with other creatures.

Because dogs have never carried out genocides, cows have never tortured, hens have never enslaved, and rabbits have never built kingdoms or empires by razing villages and cities, looting their inhabitants, and raping their women.

Some may think that only some humans do all of that, but history tells us these are widespread phenomena, with broad social support. And this is so because Homo sapiens is, by nature, quite good on the one hand, but quite evil on the other, even though it usually has a sugar-coated image of itself, precisely due to its narcissism. That same narcissism makes us self-satisfied and pleased to meet ourselves.

Some base the presumed superiority of humankind on intelligence. But then, does that mean that a 2-year-old child is inferior to a pig or a hen? Because scientists have discovered that the latter have an intelligence equivalent to 4-year-old children. Or does it mean that a gifted person can do whatever they want to someone with average intelligence? And that this person can lock someone with an intellectual disability in cages and mistreat them?

Precisely those who defend supremacism based on intelligence are usually those with the least reason to be proud of it, since they typically do not have very high IQs. In fact, it has been proven that those with higher intelligence tend more to be vegan, respectful, and egalitarian with other species. Those who are more basic and ignorant are more prone to the opposite.

One sign of our limited intelligence is that we often perpetuate the beliefs we learned in childhood without questioning them, since most humans do not have the basic intellectual capacity to do so on their own. That is why they tend to be superstitious and firmly believe in 1 of the 4,240 religions that exist today (or, in the past, 1 of the tens of thousands that existed): the one they were indoctrinated with. They usually have blind faith in it, as if it were an absolute truth, despite not having done the slightest work to verify its truthfulness.

Someone will reply that we have been able to create rockets to reach the moon or bridges like the one in San Francisco. But, once again, that is an arrogant overestimation of ourselves, since neither I have done such a thing nor have almost any people. Only a minority are able to invent that kind of thing.

That perverse narcissistic attitude is harmful, as it causes immense suffering to others. In addition, that self-complacency entails believing that we do not need to improve because we are already fantastic, which in reality makes us mediocre. And, worse still, all of this is very widespread.

LET US RATHER BE REALISTIC, RATIONAL AND EXCELLENCE-ORIENTED!

This is the first step toward reforming ourselves and society and thus achieving a much better world to live in.

Thank you for sharing so we can reach that goal,