It's more than the bare necessities - we want to be king

Not this...




It's all about this...




Human beings are obsessed with success. There is no other way I can think to put it. Look at Hollywood: it is an industry filled with beautiful, rich, people, surrounded by the glitz and glam we think they ought to deserve. I sometimes feel rather sorry for celebrities; poor things have to make sure they have the perfect body, don’t say anything the slightest bit politically incorrect. We exploit every single aspect of their lives just so we can catch a glimpse of how a “successful” person wakes up and gets coffee or goes shopping. It’s not an obsession that is just American. There are tabloids all over the world…and there’s a reason that they’re all still in business.

In the deepest corner of the labyrinth of our minds, I think everybody has at least the slightest desire to have it all. We all want the money, the stunning good looks, the dream home and perfect family. “Because the condition of the race is better…than it has been with any other,” (Carnegie 396) we are far past the stereotypical Darwinian search for success. We have no need to worry for our lives as a squirrel scampering across a busy street should. While I agree that, “an instinct has been slowly developed among animals and men in the course of an extremely long evolution…[that] they can borrow from the practice of mutual aid and support, and the joys they can find in social life,” (Kropotkin 400) I believe there is still a large difference between humans and other animals. Animals seem to have a more singular goal of survival in life. They need to be fed, sheltered and protected from predators, which animals within species will many times help each other out with, as
in the so called practice of “Mutual Aid and Mutual support” (Kropotkin 399). Success for an animal would be to survive long enough to reproduce and make sure the species is sustained. Humans, on the other hand, are mostly able to survive just fine and thus strive to be much more than just a surviving animal. Humans “have evolved by natural selection” (Wilson 409) so that they experience more emotions than animals do, including greed, and jealousy, a greater sense of ownership, and also a better functioning moral compass. (I’m not claiming to know how animals think and feel. I’m just assuming based on observation.) We don’t just want to survive; we want to thrive.

We often compare unethical behavior – cheating, stealing, thrashing – with animalistic behavior. The animal kingdom is a brutal place of “survival of the fittest.” Animals will do whatever is necessary do survive. A tiger will sneak up on a baby gazelle when hungry; it is built to do that. In the same way, unethical conduct in the human world arises whenever we feel our ability to either/both survive and thrive are endangered. Take a look at Africa. It is a land ravaged by disease, lack of water and food. Surviving is hard. We become “true animals” when that happens – Africa is a place where some of the most violence on Earth occurs. There is constant raping, stealing, killing and genocide. That is a case of simply trying to live.

However, “we are not just talking about behavior, but about social behavior” (Ruse and Wilson, 509). Why does a company exec steal millions of dollars or does somebody spread rumors about another? Once survival is taken care of, the mind quickly latches onto the idea of thriving socially. Thus, when we feel socially endangered, the unethical, animalistic behavior resumes as the claws are unsheathed for a catfight.

I feel that humans are socialized and cultured to act with good morals. It is only when the going gets tough that we get our tough going.