2025 - The Path Beyond Instinct Beckons

Hidden within the looming chaos of 2025 lies an alternative path. It is one worth considering if civilization is to have any chance at moving forward instead of further backwards. Though rarely discussed beyond small circles, this path has nothing to do with getting ahead or accumulating anything. It does involve various levels of self-sacrifice and can be dangerous. As we might expect, it has little curbside appeal.

The path we’ve been stumbling along has us facing an almost laughable quagmire. It is simply the cumulative effect of many centuries worth of unbridled greed, manufactured division, and the associated lust for power. This wayward path toward self-destruction would have never been feasible without the widespread disregard for truth and basic human decency which we’ve witnessed over the past ten years.

Over this same period, we’ve also seen a groundswell of those who have tossed aside moral fortitude and courage to accommodate an insatiable desire for profit, security and pleasure. Surely, it’s concentrated toward the top, but we’re all immersed in it and therefore vulnerable to its appeal.

In 2025, almost everything that we value as a society is in jeopardy, whether we recognize it or not.

---

Photography by Eva Blue - Courtesy Unsplash

Does Humanity have a Spectrum Disorder?

On a related topic, please humor me and ride with my suspicion that - Homo Sapiens generally reside somewhere on a spectrum that runs between mostly animal and mostly spiritual. The latter would be that which mysteriously binds us together on multiple levels. That is not to say that any one person couldn’t have traits that run the gamut. Nor should it suggest that there aren’t inconsistencies or paradoxes within any individual. We just resonate more comfortably with people and ideas at particular places along that continuum. The more time we spend in groupthink, or emulating those around us, the more entrenched we become in that region of the spectrum.

We expect animals to be at certain “low” places, while assuming humans and spiritual leaders will meet certain higher standards. When those expectations are not met, the bells go off and our hearts are either troubled or warmed. An example of this mismatch would be evidenced by the emotional response generated when animals or humans show up at unexpected places on the animal - human - spirit spectrum.

Specifically, we expect animals to fight and eat each other. It’s pretty much inbred. So we’re pleasantly surprised when dogs and cats love each other. Most of us are intrigued by the dog hugging cat pictures on FB, and for that matter - mass murderers, or the Mother Theresa’s of the world. They’re adorable, disgusting or inspiring respectively, but they each garner our attention.

I “witnessed” a most striking example of this spectrum’s unpredictable nature back in the 1980s. I was watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom on TV. The photographer was filming the annual fall migration of many hundreds of elk ranging from vulnerable calves to enormous bulls.

The cameraman was panning as the herd slowly made its way down a long line of meadows with a backdrop of forest - when the photographer abruptly halted his movement. He narrowed his focus onto a pack of maybe ten wolves back within the trees, slinking toward their banquet. Within seconds, the closest part of the herd, a hundred yards away, started running. I knew one of the relatively slow calves or maybe a spike (think a few hundred pounds of meat) would be the easiest target - and I’d seen that movie before.

However, as the end of that long herd came into sight, a lone bull took a half-dozen steps from the edge toward the slowly advancing pack. And he stood there almost motionless, guarding the slowest as they ran by. The wolves formed a large but then contracting circle around that bull as the others disappeared from view. And then the attack started from different parts of the circle but each time the elk was able to fend off the wolves with his hind legs or rack, at one point spinning off a wolf attached to his hind leg. The number of healthy wolves plummeted, and the hero eventually walked off.

How many of we humans would be willing to stand up to those odds for a bunch of strangers? This evolved elk had clearly transcended basic animal instincts to sacrifice for the greater good.

The Path

I started out this post referring to a path. Sorry it took me so long to get to the trailhead. Even though I am only vaguely familiar with the so-called path, I’ve been inspired by the few steps I’ve taken alongside exceptional humans who knew it well. They were remarkable in that they had a seriously diminished sense of self and an over-sized connection with humanity as a whole. Almost by definition they were minimally burdened by the trappings of privilege, abundance, or their own security. I cannot personally make any of these claims, but I admire those who can.

Very simply, the path I’m suggesting we consider is the one that moves the focus from what we want, toward that which the disadvantaged, marginalized, and vulnerable need. It also moves the focus from the here and now to the future where generations of the unborn depend on us.

I mentioned the fact that those on this minimally tread path have to learn self-sacrifice. For many thousands, if not millions of years, we humans have instinctively learned the opposite. We don’t have another million years to genetically internalize another approach to interacting with each other or nature itself. We would have to intentionally prioritize changing ourselves. And we certainly can’t wait for institutions or governments to switch out their foundations.

---

This path has definitely been followed before and sometimes with remarkable accomplishments. Who among us has never been exposed, in some way, to a person who clearly prioritizes the welfare of others over their own? All but a sad minority have either heard or read of the standard-bearers such as Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Francesca Cabrini, Martin Luther King, Jr., or more recently Rachel Corrie.

The movers and shakers I’ve mentioned tend to be highly spiritual people with an unshakable commitment to do that which was right - regardless of the personal cost.

I would add that a majority of people around the world have probably met at least a toned-down version of these exemplary humans somewhere, maybe within their own communities. Please feel free to share your stories - I would be most appreciative.

Please note that up to this point I haven’t even mentioned religion because any such organization is vulnerable to corruption once powerbrokers get their hands on it. Blind allegiance to corrupted institutions or belief systems is a large part of what’s gotten us into the worldwide mess that we face today. It’s been responsible for the taking of so many millions of lives under the proud banners of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. Each of these religions can take us out of our own driver’s seat when it comes to spiritual growth or living the moral principles that go with it.

As an example, Christianity has moved its focus away from Christ’s revolutionary spiritual teachings, alleged miracles, lifestyle, and activism toward an obsession with one Bible verse. Ask any card-carrying Christian about Jesus and they’ll likely cite John 3:16, which is about being rewarded with an eternity in heaven for merely saying that they believe in Jesus.

Of the roughly two thousand words attributed directly to Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible, only a couple dozen allude to this arrangement, and yet countless millions hang their hat on it. And this begs the question, did Jesus actually say those words in the first place?

Most of Jesus’ teachings were as revolutionary two thousand years ago as they are today, which is why the authorities had him crucified. It’s also why people like Dietrich Bonhoffer and Martin Luther King, Jr. were all too familiar with prisons before being martyred themselves.

Lest people feel I’m judging or proselytizing, can we at least ask ourselves if the past few thousand years taught us anything about productive ways to interact? Has the animal instinct to divide into friend or foe relationships, with fight or flight responses to every confrontation - taken us to a better place or ever closer to nuclear annihilation?

Should the goal of peaceful co-existence - the one built on compassion and reasonable compromise - be snatched from the back burner of history and revisited with an open and insightful mind?

Is the human species being called upon to shed basic animal instincts for the greater good?