human nature in itself, or rather its culture-induced avatars

All our behaviors are intrinsically linked to our psychic functioning. This operation is partly innate, partly conditioned by education, morals, the various social and environmental constraints.

Whenever behaviour is problematic, the question arises as to the extent to which it is derived from the innate characteristics of human psychism, as genetically programmed, or whether it is derived on the contrary from certain conditionings or other factors which may have altered the psychic structures in relation to what it should be.

When it comes to constitutional flaws, we can only seek palliatives, impose certain limits to compensate for inappropriate trends. For example, the tendency to believe that man is superior to nature and capable of controlling it as he pleases, may belong to a “promean” psychic structure intrinsically linked to human nature. This would be a kind of contradiction between genetic data, which are useful to the species, and its destructive character for the biotope on which the species depends. There is, however, no reason to exclude it, and this should be considered whenever humans venture into activities that are harmful to the environment. The only solution is then to intervene with the help of prohibitions, obligations, or dispatches of all kinds in order to limit damage.

If, on the contrary, it is a functional disorder, the picture is quite different: the same “promethean” tendency would arise in this case from the unfortunate constraints imposed on the individual by his social or material environment. Education, for example, could be responsible for a psychic structuring that leaves too much room for the ego and its paranoid traits. If the same tendencies are found in the majority of individuals, they seem inherent in human nature, and therefore inevitable. However, it remains possible to find decisive solutions, going back to the responsible factors and correcting them. In the particular case, by reforming the education of young children.

Every time we detect, at the origin of ecological disorders, a characteristic of our psychic functioning, we find ourselves in front of the same alternative: it is either an innate tare or an acquired dysfunction. Innate and acquired factors can obviously be combined. Research is essential to decipher the root causes and often complex mechanisms responsible for behavioral drifts. This type of approach is usually not considered, or quickly abandoned precisely because it does not flatter the ego and requires an act of humility.

Human ecogenetics assumes that the ecological problem, given the unprecedented threat it poses to the future of the planet, must take precedence over all reticence and prejudice. We all have to do everything we can to go back to the sources of the spiral that always takes us further to self-destruction…