The dark side of human nature

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What causes people to be cruel? What causes cruelty? I have never had any inclinations toward cruelty myself. My natural inclination is to help people. What causes people to wish to hurt others?

The following is from Thomas Sowell. Conquests and Cultures.

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Warfare between the Iroquois and their enemies involved not only the carnage of battle but also sadistic tortures of captives, which might be prolonged for hours or even days, until death finally ensued. Sometimes ritualized cannibalism was also practiced. However, not all captives were tortured or eaten, by any means. It was the men of the opposing tribe who might suffer this fate, as well as enslavement, but women and children were simply taken prisoner and usually absorbed into the conquering tribe. p. 303

With all its intellectual and material accomplishments, Mayan civilization could hardly be considered humanitarian. One of its central priorities was war and one of its chief priorities in war was the capture, torture, and slaughter of enemy soldiers and leaders. As a scholar specializing in the history of the Maya put it, "the highest goal of these lineage-proud dynasts was to capture the ruler of a rival city-state in battle, to torture and humiliate him (sometimes for years), and then to subject him to decapitation following a ball game which the prisoner was always destined to lose." While atrocities have occurred around the world, this was a society in which such behavior was not simply accepted, but systematized and celebrated. Mayan art and writing featured scenes of captured enemies cut open while alive or being tortured and pleading with their captors, their leaders being debased by Mayan leaders, and Mayan warriors wearing coats decorated with the shrunken heads of their victims. Human sacrifice was a feature of Mayan culture, as it was among the Aztecs and Incas. Those sacrificed included not only captured enemies but also adults and children killed to be buried with Mayan leaders, presumably to provide someone to look after their needs in the next world. Nor were enemy victims simply incidental casualties of war. Some military actions were undertaken precisely in order to obtain captives to kill in celebration of the accession of a new ruler. p. 267

Above all, the Aztec empire was one in which military prowess was emphasized and glorified. For an Aztec warrior, one of the great prizes of war were the captured enemy warriors who were led back to the capital to be sacrificed by having their hearts cut out of their living bodies on a high altar, while Aztec civilians and foreign emissaries watched, as streams of blood poured down the steps of the pyramid from this mass carnage. Rulers and dignitaries from the surrounding peoples—both subjects and independent peoples—were not merely invited but compelled to attend, a decline of the invitation being punishable by death.

The number of people sacrificed on the altars of the various pyramids has been a matter of dispute among scholars, but the competing estimates are in the tens of thousands. The particular Aztec warrior who had captured an enemy was not only allowed the honor of cutting his heart out, but was also awarded an arm or thigh to take home and cook for a ceremonial meal for his family. The purpose of this was not to provide food, but to fulfill cultural and religious purposes, just as the purpose of the public sacrifice was to propitiate the gods and to inure the Aztec people in general to blood and carnage.

For the conquered peoples, their ordeal began immediately after conquest. When the Aztecs conquered the Mixtecs, their ruler was killed and his family enslaved. Then their chiefs who submitted to Aztec rule had to attend a victory banquet at which the Aztecs boasted of their feats and hurled humiliating insults at the vanquished. Thereafter, tribute in kind and in labor had to be paid to the Aztecs. This tribute sometimes included children to be sacrificed on the altars.

Many conquered peoples were reduced to being serfs tied to land controlled by their Aztec overlords. An even worse fate could await conquered areas that later rebelled, which could lead to a wholesale slaughter of the population. Wanton brutality was not the whole story, however. The Aztecs, like such other conquerors as the Mongols, used terror as a weapon to demoralize their enemies and keep the subjugated peoples in line. Aztec leaders were often shrewdly scheming politicians, both in dealing with external peoples or with various rivals and allies within the empire. p. 276 - 277

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Down through the ages human sacrifice has been practiced by many peoples in many places in the world, in both the Old World and the New World, usually in connection with religion. Sacrifice as an atonement for sin is an important concept in the Bible.

What is the source of this very old idea of sacrifice to receive favors from a god or to atone for sin?

The drug gangs of Latin America have shown a great capacity for cruelty, savagery, and mercilessness in dealing with people as have many peoples down through the ages. (For example, the Vikings, Huns, and Mongols.)

Going back to the beginnings of recorded history man has a long history of wars, fighting, and killing other humans, often in great slaughters of hundreds of thousands. What other creature on earth has engaged in the kind of slaughters of its own species that man has? Furthermore, in every culture and every age there are always many who are out to steal from their fellow man or do him some kind of damage. What does this tell us of the basic nature of man? What wild animal has a nature like this? Does it have something to do with selfishness and greed?

13 July 2024