INKTOBER DAY 27: BEAST

27. Oktober 2023  •  1 Minuten

Inspired from:

Hitler and Churchill, Roosevelt and Lindemann – all of them signed on to psychologist Gustave Le Bon’s claim that our state of civilisation is no more than skin deep. They were certain that air raids would blow this fragile covering to bits. But the more they bombed, the thicker it got. Seems it wasn’t a thin membrane at all, but a callus.

[…]

Considering the most recent evidence of psychology and biology, of archaeology and anthropology, of sociology and history, we can only conclude that humans have for millennia navigated by a faulty self-image. For ages, we’ve assumed that people are selfish, that we’re beasts, or worse. For ages, we’ve believed civilisation is a flimsy veneer that will crack at the merest provocation. Now we know this view of humankind, and this perspective on our history, is utterly unrealistic.

— Rutger Bregman, Humankind

(→ Inktober drawing challenge 2023)