Redirecting The Human’s Killer Instinct For More Resourceful Goals
The most important thing to any form of nature is the ability to survive. For this all-important reason of survival, nature from the microform to the man regarded as the most intelligent can go to any length to ultimately sharpen and enhance the survival instincts.
In the basic and rudimentary form, the most important thing to enhance survival is food. Food is the source of energy that propels nature. Without food, the only other thing is death and given the opportunity any form of nature wants to prolong its life.
I must also point out that water, air, clothing, shelter, and mate are all basic needs for the survival of nature, but amongst all food is the most difficult to come by.
Among the living forms of nature, there is the propensity for utmost competition for food and this gave rise to the survival of the fittest. It is the attribute of humans and other living things to hunt for food.
This hunger for food and its search has led to the migrational attitude of nature. The question anybody may want to ask is if plants since they too are living to embark on this search for food?
Yes, plants indirectly forage for food. They go deep into the earth with their roots searching for nutrients and even water to produce their own food. They are not left out in this stiff competition and its attendant survival of the fittest.
Do we then need to wonder why every form of nature must sharpen its killer instinct once the search for food is embarked upon?
It is more of the case of “if I get you, you have become my meal for the day.” The ability to survive especially where resources are scarce definitely depends on how strong you are, how intelligent you have become, and how fine-tuned your killer instinct is.
Humans have done a great job in this sphere, right from the crudely chipped stones used by early humans living in Africa, about 2 million years ago; to the most modern forms of weaponry in use today. We definitely must give it to humans for this unsurpassed ingenuity.
Humans did not just stop at efforts to make hunting relatively easier, they went ahead to design and fashion out machines that can be used in cultivating the land for food, all the while fine-tuning and sharpening their skills to enhance survival on earth.
Humans have used their intelligence to burrow right into the bowel of the earth to source out water. There is practically nothing they set out to achieve they have not been able to get in their kitty. Which altogether should be seen as a progressive step.
The only problem is that humans have so much perfected the killing instinct to the extent that it is being misused. We go out hunting not for food as it used to be. Humans kill for fun and we don’t have any qualms about it.
We kill anything we lay our hands on. We kill fellow humans, other animals, plants, and even microorganisms in a show of force.
The question we need to ask ourselves is, is there no way we can redirect this highly sharpened killer instinct which we have acquired into achieving more resourceful goals?
The truth of the matter is that it is highly possible and more than timely too. You will agree with me that there are many avenues where humans can channel their intelligence which will not only better the cause of humans but nature at large.
The following are some ways we can best utilize our hard earned killer instinct to better the cause of nature.
- A ‘greener’ environment
The environment we live in has been so much abused and corrupted by our actions. On a regular basis, we keep on releasing harmful and toxic substances into the atmosphere.
These substances we release do not only have harmful effects on humans but also on other living and sometimes non-living components of nature. Things we have spewed into the environment include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases.
It is on good authority that all these substances we keep on injecting into the environment are responsible for the global warming we are experiencing in the world.
It is also not far-fetched that the catastrophic occurrences such as hurricanes and earthquakes we experience are as a result of these substances we injected.
If we redirect a fraction of the time we use to sharpen our killer instincts into ways and means to safely handle and possibly recycle these wastes we generate from our daily activities, the environment will be surely better for it.
The human intellect is more than capable of ensuring this. We have the capabilities within our reach to make a greener environment possible.
We simply need to activate the different Environmental Protection Agencies and other allied bodies in nations of the world to become more functional and more proactive.
There is also the need to ensure that countries that have not put in place such agencies are made to do so since it is an established fact that discharges from any part of the world have the potentials to affect all of us.
- An arms free world
The world has more arms and weapons that are necessary. But the confounding thing is that we are not satisfied. We keep on manufacturing more and even improving on the ones we have manufactured.
We have even gone ahead to make the production of weapons of mass destruction a competitive venture. Any country that has not amassed hundreds of tons of such weapons can literarily not be taken seriously in the comity of nations.
Countries even go to the extent of intimidating others with the assortment of weapons of mass destruction they have been able to amass. We have used our ingenuity to produce chemical and biological weapons.
These weapons before been certified okay are usually tested in the environment to ascertain how devastating their effects can be. They may not be tested on humans but the environment invariably feels the impact.
When missiles are tested on our bodies of water just like North Korea did a couple of times, the heat generated is expected to be absorbed by the water. Lives in the water body are surely affected.
When the water bodies are not able to effectively absorb the heat, it is absorbed by the glaciers which unfortunately are melting down as a result of the extreme quantity of heat we have generated and released into the atmosphere.
The resultant effect of the melting of the glaciers and ice caps is the global warming we are experiencing.
If, however, the water bodies are able to absorb the heat, the agitations and disturbances travel far and wide causing waves to build up. The resultant effects of such waves are tremors, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disastrous and catastrophic occurrences.
If the ingenuity we employ in the production of these weapons is partially translated into the production of food, hunger and starvation will be a thing of the past.
If we can put in a fraction of our intellect used in the production of weapons into the recycling of wastes, the world will be a better place for us all.
If we can sink in half of the resources both human and financial used in the production of weapons into the provision of potable water, thirst, and our water needs will be abated.
Why can’t we focus this sharpened instinct to kill into the provision of energy? One of the reasons for the world’s high rate of unemployment is that there is no energy to run our industries.
All over the world crime rates ranging from terrorism, rape, armed robbery, arson, kidnapping, and burglary are on the increase every year because a lot of people are hungry and uncomfortable. Yet we are busy working hard to perfect the killer instinct.
What do we do you may want to ask?
There is a lot that can be done, and we can start by enacting a law at the U.N. that any country that engages in the production of weapons of mass destruction is sanctioned by the whole world.
To make this work, we should completely remove sentiments and affiliations. Whether you are a NATO member, belong to the Warsaw Pact, or a non-aligned nation should not be considered when dealing with any country that contravenes this law.
Individual countries should work seriously at laws that regulate the possession of firearms. The truth is that when people don’t buy weapons the manufacturers will be forced to close shops.
If licenses are to be granted manufacturers, we should be very selective about who is given the go-ahead to produce weapons.
Industries that have been used to manufacture these weapons should be converted to the production of other goods that are beneficial to mankind so that the workers are not laid off.
- Less of competition, more of corporation
We know that food is a very scarce commodity and that is why there is so much competition, with everybody trying to outwit the other in the quest for food. The rivalry, therefore, has become very unhealthy.
Don’t you think that if we come together as one, it will be better?
If all of us can put our cards on the board, whereby a sort of trade by the batter is arrived at, things will work out for the better. The apt word for it is a corporation. You contribute what you know best while I do mine.
Some countries have the technical know-how, some have the human resources, some have the land mass, and some have the financial resources. We are not all equally endowed.
If we corporate and put our acts together we shall surely win the battle. What we have been doing so far is more of paying the lips’ service to this problem. We have never given it a serious attention.
We do have what it takes but instead of jointly harnessing our abounding resources, we have rather individually channeled them to the wrong cause of fine-tuning our killer instinct.
With the abounding technology, we can make the earth full of food. The machinery we need we can produce. With our science, we can not only make the earth fertile but can also use our laboratories to fashion out alternatives.
With the world population expected to hit the 9 billion mark by the year 2050, we don’t need to harp more on the killer instinct. In as much as we may not be able to feed the expected boost in the population with what we have presently, we should go into the laboratories to produce artificial and synthetic foods.
The world spoke with one voice during the 2nd world war, that voice has definitely and couldn’t have gone dumb. We need that voice now more than ever to be channeled and redirected into the very pressing issues we are engulfed in at the moment.
4 . Conservation of endangered species
One other area humans need to work on seriously with their stock of abounding intelligence is the area of conservation of the earth’s “endangered” species. I will, however, refer specifically here to trees.
Without mincing words, the trees of this earth are more than endangered. We ‘kill’ them at will and they can’t resist even if they want.
We fell trees for fuel, furniture, ornaments, and a host of other things. In as much as most things we use the trees for are essential to our daily lives, there shouldn’t be any complaint.
But that is not the case. There are instances where we fell trees for the fun of it and because they can’t resist. We also fell trees because nobody is there to raise an eyebrow.
We, however, cleanly and clearly forget the fact that we even have any seemingly “green” environment today is basically because trees are in existence. An average tree has been found to absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
You will remember that carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that have been creating so much havoc in nature and that they are the gases we inadvertently emit into the atmosphere.
If you ask, I should have thought that since it has proven rather difficult for us to remove these gases from the atmosphere and we see the trees making the effort, we shouldn’t go about “killing” the trees. They are helping us to clear up the mess we have created.
I rather that we go about conserving them with our “super” intellect and also see how we can put in place more trees. The fact that the U.N. embarked on the Billion Tree Campaign is a step in the right direction but it is sad that we have not really attached the required seriousness to it.
If there is any reason why a tree should be cut, a concerted effort should be made to replace it with another. That is how I believe we can redirect our instincts in this particular situation.
In conclusion, I know it may seem a tall order and a mission impossible, but just a little effort and a little understanding from everybody are what we need.
It can be done if we are committed and really desire to give it a working chance. We have all the arsenals in our armory to succeed in this venture. We need mother nature so much and we can’t afford to toy with the opportunities we have been accorded.
Generations to come will hold us accountable for all the ill treatment we have meted to nature and for not giving them a chance to survive because that is exactly what it translates to.
