Summary
Highlights
Craig Conway introduces Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith, author of 'Freedom: The End of The Human Condition.' Griffith's work aims to explain and solve the underlying cause of human suffering by addressing the 'good and evil' stricken human condition. The interview is divided into four parts, each approximately 15 minutes long. Conway highlights Professor Harry Prosen's endorsement of Griffith's work as 'the Holy Grail of insight' for the psychological rehabilitation of the human race.
Jeremy Griffith, a biologist, proposes a non-abstract, scientific explanation for the human condition. He challenges the common belief that human competitiveness and aggression are due to 'savage, must-reproduce-our-genes instincts' like other animals. Instead, he argues that our behavior stems from a 'conscious mind-based, psychologically troubled Human Condition.' This distinction is crucial because psychological conditions can be healed with understanding, unlike innate instincts. Using the analogy of a stork named Adam, Griffith illustrates how the emergence of a conscious mind would inevitably lead to a conflict with pre-existing instincts, resulting in anger, egocentricity, and alienation—the very traits defining the human condition.
Craig asks why, if this explanation is so 'obvious,' it hasn't been taught previously. Griffith explains that while ancient wisdom (like the Adam and Eve story and mythological 'golden ages') recognized a 'fall from grace' due to consciousness, science was needed to explain the 'good reason' for our corrupted state. Pre-scientific narratives could only label our post-conscious behavior as 'evil.' The 'savage instincts' excuse provided a convenient, albeit false, explanation while humanity awaited a true understanding. Griffith emphasizes that this understanding reveals humans as 'immense heroes' for enduring the condemnation while searching for knowledge. He notes that while some thinkers recognized the instinct-versus-intellect conflict, only with modern science could the full explanation be realized, thanks to the work of S. Laing Van der Post and himself.
Griffith addresses how humans acquired moral instincts, a question that has long puzzled biologists, including Darwin. He explains that while maternal instincts are genetically selfish (ensuring gene propagation), from the infant's perspective, maternal care is 'unconditionally selfless.' Prolonged infancy with such nurturing indoctrinates the young in altruistic selflessness. Bonobos, our closest living relatives, exemplify this with their extraordinarily nurturing and cooperative behavior, providing evidence for our own species' 'Garden of Eden' past. This truth about our cooperative heritage and the nurturing origin of our morality was suppressed because humanity couldn't explain its fall from grace. Now, with the complete explanation, humanity can finally heal its 'soul illness' (psychosis) by understanding and letting go of defensiveness, leading to a new, cooperative, and loving world, free from the political divisions fueled by the human condition.