Should society unleash the animal within or suppress and constrain?
Most people want freedom but when given this freedom are people generally responsible?
- Are humans driven by their animal instincts?
- Are these animal instincts we have dangerous and anti-social?
- Does society exist to constrain and restrain these animal instincts to prevent dangerous animal expressions?
Self control in humans
Some have more self control than others. If we desire a society which is more free then wouldn't it also require that greater quantity of people have increasing self control? How can this be possible if humans are in effect guided by and under the influence of animal instincts? In this case wouldn't the flaws inherent to being a human be made more dangerous if these instincts are unleashed without some mechanism to enhance the self control capability of the humans?
Can technology help individuals to improve their self control so that they can use feedback loops and technical means to suppress their base instincts without requiring the interference of law? In this case the individual would have to know themselves much better, and would require new devices to monitor and correct their own behaviors.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback has been shown to be an option for humans who have for instance ADD or and anti-social tendencies. These humans have used these brain feedback devices to let them know when they are focusing and not focusing so that they can train their ability to focus. This has been shown to help some people who learn to focus better over time and as a result have more self control. Could everyone benefit from biofeedback?
Regarding bio-feedback, the answer is a big yes.
I realized once I became an adult that I have been doing it, or at least a form of meditative relaxation, since about 3rd grade. I remember one day I discovered that if I held something shiny in front of me on my desk and rocked it back and forth so that it flashed, and then let my vision go out of focus so that I saw two flashing points, and did that for a couple of minutes, that it was a great break from schoolwork and that I felt very refreshed afterwards.
And I also discovered that if I slowed my breathing down and concentrated, I could drop my pulse rate into the low 50s when getting my BP and HR checked during medical exams.
But the bigger topic is our animal nature juxtaposed against the intellectual requirements of voluntary cooperation, no ;-)?
The way I see it, there are no such thing as "rights." ( I know -- let the flaming begin...) In the jungle, a solitary man has no "rights." He has life and the ability to use his strength to preserve and enhance it as much as possible. These are not "rights." These just are. But, try to argue for his "right" to life against a tiger or snake? Not productive.
But when he runs across another human, and they both (perhaps in an unspoken way) agree to not kill each other, suddenly the "right to life" blossoms. If the other tries to kill him, he feels "wronged", because the other guy broke the agreement.
Rights emerge from reciprocal agreements with others. And the process of "right creation" is the process of restraining our animal natures.
And from this emerges society.
We absolutely must restrain our animal natures. They are the fire in our boiler rooms, the radioactive material in our reactors. But they burn the place down or kill everyone if we let them run wild.
With all honesty we should not because how will that make us different from others ? We have to be different and be a leading figure or we are just like rest of the world . Yes I know it's hard in this kinda world to be "kind" but it will get us far one day . The animal inside should be kept for a situation that puts us at risk only
Vanessa Lemm has a great book called Nietzsche's Animal Philosophy that covers this topic in depth. I read it in an undergrad philosophy class a while back and highly recommend it!
very informative and helpful for me and all i will say an animal is an animal and a human is a human we should live with humans we should not lock birds or any other animal in our home because our home is the city and their home is the forest so let them live there
I think some animal instincts are necessary we're others need to be contained. Our animal instincts should come to play when we seperate our animals and take them away from there families that is something we should think about! Humans as animals ourselves mourn when someone is taken from us I'm sure animals do the same. We should believe since we have animal instincts we are animals ourselves. Great post 👌🏻 Really gets you thinking !
Interesting point Dana.
I would think this is more a self-help than a 'chaining of human instinct.'
We aren't supposed to live according to our animal instincts or else we'd be no better than animals. We are superior because we control our instincts as needed while most animals simply don't have the computing ability.
Any imperfections we have (lack of focus, addiction to food, sex, facebook, etc.) doesn't as much file under animal instinct as it does a choice that leads to an imbalance.
The first time you steal something from a store, you feel bad. The second time? Not as bad.
Fiftieth time...don't care.
Biofeedback seems a way to correct the imbalance and pull us back into the present moment. When we are in the present moment, our minds are more aware and sharp than the average human who spends most of their day thinking of future events.
Only because we have a society with laws, but even then we don't fully constrain our instincts but merely collectivize them.
That depends on the animal...But, who then makes that call? It's a good question. Both sides of the argument are sensible.
isn't our society already free? You can go out and release your inner instincts if you have them boiling under your skin. If you hurt someone there will be consequences regardless of freedom.
Why bring it up anyway if you start talking about biofeedback.
How free is society for you? Which society are you in?
The question here is what are those instinctual things you can't do in your current society. I don't see any.
ZAP
government is a disease
do you want a disease to control your life?
ZAP
like and follwed
Wow, this was really intriguing!