Humanity has been moving toward ever greater rejection of needless suffering, that is, toward the humane, or, as Canadian-American psycholinguist Steven Pinker put it, “the better angels of our nature.”
In his book that takes its title from the phrase, Pinker documents the immense range and degree of suffering we used to take for granted and often regarded as entertainment, such as, for example, burning cats alive.
Many people and cultures are still utterly unaware of, or unsympathetic to, the suffering of animals. While violence is still endemic, every culture and religion regards the killing of people as one of the worst ‘sins’ and usually imposes severe penalties on those that do kill.
On the other side, we praise the humane – kindness, care and sympathy. Much of our technology aims to reduce needless suffering, and medicine is one of the most important of them.
The prevention and curing of infectious diseases, the patching up of traumatic injuries and the successful treatment of modern lifestyle diseases are nothing short of miraculous.
The reduction, and in many places the virtual elimination, of child mortality is an incredible blessing. Likely billions of people would not be walking around now, or would have much shorter lives, without that intervention. Not only do they survive but when they do die it is with less suffering than not so long ago.
In the wild, animals do not die quietly in their sleep. They die horribly, starving or being eaten alive. Few get to reproduce.
In spite of the evolutionary benefits of eliminating the unfit, there is no doubt that on balance effective medicine is a good thing.
However, as with everything, there are trade-offs.
Immense good
Labour saving energy is also an immense good for humanity, but it usually comes along with pollution and uncertain climate changes. Humane medicine now allows many people who carry genetic risks for disabilities, or greater-susceptibility pathogens, to survive long enough to pass them on. These genetic diseases, usually chronic, are becoming an increasingly large part of healthcare, even after accounting for the fall in other health challenges e.g. infections and trauma.
Another consideration is anti-social behaviour.
All behavioural variation is partially hereditary. The degree to which this is so varies, but it is quite a lot. Estimates are higher when we measure behaviour more reliably. Violent crime is strongly heritable.
For much of the Middle Ages, Europe used to execute something like 1% of young men for crime every year. That must have reduced the genetic source of crime in the population. A few researchers in this area conclude that this explains much of the move toward “our better angels” over time.
Today however we treat criminals much more humanely. They get to stay around and actually have above average breeding rates. Selection no longer eliminates the genes for crime, so they are spreading instead. Let me just say that any community will find it trying to live with people who persistently and grievously violate community norms. The difficulty will increase exponentially with each additional psychopath.
Genes underlying many kinds of mental illness are also becoming more widespread.
The media covered a lot of recent dramatic incidents involving psychotic individuals – such as random stabbings, bludgeoning or parents strangling their children. The disruptions that psychosis can cause go much further than homicide.
There are almost epidemic neurotic trends in high schools. Much of that may be due to social media or decreased social stability, but the spread of genes for susceptibility to anxiety or depression could be partly to blame.
Many an identity crisis is just anxiety the child is misinterpreting. Instead of getting the anxiety misinterpretation treated, parents and authorities alike increasingly indulge it. For example, some youngsters end up getting mutilating sex changes only to realise that was not what they needed or wanted. The suicide rate among those who have been through that is skyrocketing. The use of the blunt instruments like anti-depressants can also have unfortunate side effects, including suicidal ideation or sexual disfunction.
Highly heritable
The same applies to intelligence, which is even more highly heritable.
Everyday life is an excellent intelligence test, especially as our world moves further away from the one in which humans evolved. Social groups whose members have a higher stock of cognitive skills are more cooperative and more capable of building flourishing societies.
We can accurately predict instances of flourishing from average test scores. These collectives discover and promulgate better policies, sustain better institutions and create better and more reliable technology.
Until the Industrial Revolution (at least in England) the above average would have been double the number of surviving children as those below average. After the abundance provided by the Industrial Revolution, combined with better medicine, this trend reversed.
Ever since, those below average have outbred those who are above average. Humanity is becoming less intelligent. This has not been that apparent yet because of the effect of increasingly widespread education. Unfortunately, the education effect is becoming overwhelmed by the genetic effect. Educational and IQ scores are declining. We can follow the trends in genetic effects by tracking polygenic scores for ability over time.
Through irresponsible breeding, many dog breeds accumulate high rates of breathing difficulties, hip dysplasia, intestinal torsion, skin problems, deafness (in white dogs), and unpredictable aggression or neurotic tendencies (like a paralysing fear of thunder or obsessive compulsiveness.)
Humanity is heading that way too. The burden of hereditary physical disabilities and other chronic illnesses, mental illnesses, criminal tendencies and retardation is growing fast. The abilities we need to deal with it all are declining too. If we value the future of human thriving, we should pay attention to all of this.
Some might say the humane thing to do is to just accept it, as one might the will of God or in the sense of some kind of radical ‘body positivity’.
Try our best
They will want us to try our best to treat the problems and keep the affected individuals comfortable or integrated. I am one of them.
Others might think prevention is better than cure or treatment and conclude that “the gene pool needs chlorine”. I am one of them, too.
Both approaches are possible simultaneously. Now that I have shocked you with my “gene pool” analogy, stay tuned. I will address that in depth in the second part of this essay. Spoiler alert, I argue that it can be both the more effective, and the humane, option.
[Image: Annie Spratt on Unsplash]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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