FTW FAQ 1.52

 

How does knowing biologist Jeremy Griffith’s explanation of the human condition help me if I am being attacked or persecuted?

 

Understanding the human condition doesn’t immediately stop suffering, but it helps make sense of human behaviour, allowing more effective responses to conflict or persecution. It provides insight into both ourselves and others, improving our ability to manage difficult situations.

 

Jeremy Griffith’s response:

The human condition has caused so much suffering and torture for humans that life has been a deeply, deeply, all-too-often unbearably tragic reality. But at least we now have understanding of the human condition, the madness of human behaviour can at last be understood, made sense of. While this understanding, this amazing insight into human life, isn’t able to stop all the suffering in the world straight away (even though it has the power to stop all that suffering over only a few generations), what the understanding does give us is a far more accurate way to manage events. The less we understand a situation, the harder it is to manage it, while the more we understand a situation, the more able we are to manage it, imperfect as that management might be. We can at last know why we humans are the way we are, and that puts us in the best possible position to manage human life.

At last we can understand the dark side of ourselves and of others—but it is critical to emphasise that this understanding of why we humans became psychologically upset as a species does not condone or sanction upset behaviour, especially not extremely upset behaviour. See our FAQ 1.38 ‘Does this condone ‘evil’ behaviour?’

In paragraph 1132 of my book FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, I present this quote from Sir Laurens van der Post to evidence the importance of maintaining freedom from oppression in the human journey to enlightenment: ‘I hope a war is not declared by anybody in the modern world because I don’t see the real necessity for war, but I would like to say that I think it would be immoral—it would be obscene—not to be ready at any moment to defend ourselves…If somebody should impose war upon us, attack us, I hope that we should have the will and the power and the moral courage to realise that life, freedom, are gifts from God and creation and our duty to defend. There’s a wonderful episode in the life of Buddha where a group of villagers in the Himalayas did not defend themselves against a band of brigands who attacked and killed many of them, and he rebuked them because he said that was not what his teaching was about, that was not reverence for life of which he was speaking…it is a moral duty for us all to be ready to defend ourselves and our freedoms’ (presentation by Laurens van der Post at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 9 Dec. 1982; see www.fixtheworldsources.com/163).

This quote makes the point about the need and right to defend our freedom as much as is possible and sensible—but again, under extreme oppression of our freedom, what can be of the greatest assistance is our ability to now understand human behaviour because it gives us the greatest chance to find the best possible path available to us to manage situations we find ourselves in.

We do encourage everyone to continue to explore this new scientific paradigm and how it addresses the source of the endless horrific effects of prejudices and conflicts of all kinds throughout history and their flow-on effects. And to also reassure everyone that as the momentum of support continues to build for this work it will sweep the world and all the horrific upset in our lives and world will subside. The more people there are who understand the human condition, the easier managing the human condition will become—but at least during this early pioneer stage of the spreading of this information, whoever has this understanding of the human condition has the best possible insight into human behaviour to help them manage the still difficult human situation.

 

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Watch Jeremy Griffith present the psychologically redeeming and transforming explanation of the human condition in THE Interview. For a powerful mid-length presentation, read The Human Condition; and for a fuller explanation read chapter 3 of Jeremy’s definitive presentation on the subject, FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition.