In the last couple of days, I have been thinking a lot about all the violence, racism, hatred, discrimination, and, overall, the cruelty that has been seen throughout history. As I thought more and more about the myriad of cruelties in recent years all the way back to ancient years, I couldn’t help but wonder, where did human cruelty originate from? Has it always been around since the ‘beginning of time’? Can it be overcome? Or is it something that humanity will always have to live with and experience? In attempts to answer these questions, I did some research of my own and this is what I have come up with so far.
I started off with two questions: Why are humans cruel? What is the motive behind cruelty? And the answer I came up with was power. The want for power-- which goes hand-in-hand with the want for money (wealth), since it is said that “money is power”, is what drives (or motivates) individuals to be so cruel. However, not all humans show this. For example, I do not consider myself a cruel person. I could never see myself acting cruelly toward others in order to gain power or money. Assuming that I am not the only individual who feels this way, I then asked myself another question: How is it that some humans act upon these cruelties, and others simply cannot? The answer I came up with was ambition. Everyone has different levels of ambition. For example, I consider myself a very ambitious person. Yet, I would never let my ambition get in the way of my morals. I know what is right and what is wrong; it is something I both know and feel. This is why I still would never be capable of acting cruel against anyone. In other words, you can say that I have a limit to my ambitions, where I would never go to the extent of hurting others for the sake of getting what I want. Opposed to this, there are other individuals who do not have limits to their ambitions and will do anything to get what they want. Still, however, this did not answer my question about where human cruelty comes from. In fact, it left me with yet another question: Why is it that certain people can and do limit their ambitiousness and others do not?
In attempts to answer this question, I considered parenting and the fact that everyone is exposed to different influences, ideas, and situations that affect the way they see the world. In other words, I came upon the theory that those who experienced negativity in their life are the ones who end up being cruel. This theory, however, took me to yet another dilemma, since it did not explain how some individuals who experience negativity in their life still manage to be very kind, generous, and noble people. Here, I took on a different and unique approach: ancestry and genes. With this in mind, I googled the cruelest people in history and looked at their ancestry and where they originated from. What I found was quite riveting. All of the websites I visited had around the same names of individuals, where all of them were born in either Europe or Asia, and possibly some from Africa. Just to name a few: Adolf Hitler (Europe), Saddam Hussein (Asia), Pol Pot (Asia), Vlad Tempes (Europe), Osama Bin Laden (Asia), Nero (Europe), and Josef Stalin (Europe). This took me back to earlier civilizations in these regions of the world. Looking directly at the Greeks and Romans-- who are said to be the founders of Europe-- we see how bloody battles were common among them and how war was a great part of their lives. But what influenced war and cruelty? Looking at Greek and Roman mythology, we can see that their gods were very human and very different from how we think of gods-- in fact, their gods were very morally imperfect; they were cheaters, liars, deceivers, and committed adultery, along with other imperfections that are seen as immoral. These were the gods whom they looked up to, feared, and respected. Still, however, cruelty traces even further back to previous civilizations in Europe. So where did cruelty come from? The answer may lie in our early ancestors and the oldest known early humans: the Homo erectus. Considering that remains of Homo erectus were found in these regions, it’s logical to reason that cruelty could have originated here. Since Homo erectus also had smaller brains compared to us, we can infer that they more than likely had little to no consciousness and lived based off of animal instinct, which required them to be aggressive and ‘cruel’ in order to survive.
Taking into account that the majority (if not all) of the cruelest individuals in history indeed come from the Europe/Asia region and none from the Americas, Antarctica, etc., we can conclude that cruelty was either, overcome somehow in the Americas, Antarctica, etc., regions of the world by ancient civilizations before the invasion of Europeans, or was never seen in these regions until the invasion of Europeans. This can also be supported by the different lifestyles-- or more specific their praise and connection with nature, and their intentions of living a peaceful life-- that the indigenous people had (such as the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayans) compared to the lifestyles of the English, Spaniards, etc. In other words, the ‘ignorance’ of the indigenous that Christopher Columbus, and many other Europeans used to violate and eventually defeat them could have simply been their absence of cruelty.
In conclusion, it can be said that cruelty is somehow genetic and has now spread across the world through crossbreeding, which then explains why not every individual shows actions of cruelty but others do. Keep in mind that I am not saying this is fact. I am simply attempting to put puzzle pieces together. In fact, the lack of history records from ancient civilizations in the Americas (Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, etc.)-- due to the destruction of them by the Spaniards-- possibly leaves us with an incomplete puzzle. Maybe we would have records of actual, cruel individuals who originated from the Americas or other regions of the world aside from Europe/Asia, but thanks to the violent invasion of Spain and the destruction of many historic records, this is what we are left with, so this is what we must make of it. In the end, I would love to hear your opinion and thoughts about the origin of human cruelty. What do you agree with? Disagree with? The more opinions, ideas, and perspectives there are on an issue, the greater the possibility of completing the puzzle. It is through this that progress and change is made.
