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Is cruelty our true nature? [1]
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Date: 2025-07-03
“It’s a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘Try to be a little kinder.’”
Aldous Huxley
Having myself reached “mature” years, I second Huxley’s motion. From childhood on, I have been encouraged, instructed, and admonished to treat others the way I want them to treat me. The Golden Rule has never been easy to obey; and I have all along seen, or even known, people who reject it completely, yet do quite well, materially. But throughout the years, I notice that most people at least try to extend kindness to others. More importantly, I have learned that I like myself when I treat people decently, regardless of how others behave. The election of 2024 upended those lifelong lessons. Even a superficial respect for a functioning society based on mutual kindness was rejected in favor of out front, cruel, criminality. Donald Trump—absolutely the person my elders and mentors cautioned me not to be, who never even pretends to live by any considerate or empathetic motivations—was freely and fairly reelected to rule a nation which was founded on the principle that we are all equal—deserving kindness and respect. I feel as if a lifetime of learning was unceremoniously dumped. I can hear Trump sneering: “Huxley? Who’s he? How many bitcoins did he sell today?”
Of course we know the world has never come up short of people who practice cold-blooded, even sadistic selfishness, only to be rewarded with wealth and power. The world we must live in is often cruel. However, attaining a ripe old age has for various reasons brought me into contact with many people in the medical profession. I have learned, first, that regardless of material status, we all will die. Second, I observe that medical workers toil energetically, through long, difficult, trying workdays, to comfort, help, and heal—to the depths of their personalities. Their empathetic, caring attitudes are contagious. And while medical professionals are standouts for their kindness, they have no monopoly on decent treatment of their fellow human beings. It really is not that hard for most people to be kind.
Still, throughout history, most people have usually been ruled by desperately paranoid egomaniacs with no life goals beyond more wealth and power, obtained and maintained by dishonest, brutal methods. The United States is an exceptional nation because we have laws that limit the chief executive’s unscrupulous drive for power, which we have always enforced by popular participation in the governing process. And while we extend considerable lenience to our presidents, whose jobs sometimes require them to be less than kind under certain circumstances, most Americans truly believe a society which honors our better instincts is worth seeking. At least we did, until now. The 2024 election revealed a world that appears to have suddenly changed. Many Americans seem to have subscribed to the belief that we can survive only by being unscrupulous and ruthless. A decisive plurality of voters chose a president without ethics, along with Congressional majorities totally subservient to him.
In Trump’s first go-around, his supporters could, by stretching perceptions and tuning out reality, claim ignorance of his true nature—although in his hometown he was a long-running joke, known for a loud mouth, boorish behavior, and shady enterprises. Honest people avoided doing business with him—though he found plenty of dishonest people who would. In presidential politics, people in our country’s vast heartland between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Boston-Richmond Megalopolis ignored his reputation and voted for him thrice, though he never hid his dishonesty and total lack of kindness. There was no doubting his devious character this time. Voters in that heartland, who once had a reputation for bedrock honesty, thrift with generosity, cooperative individualism, and common sense, appear to have dropped their reputed virtues, and elected for all of us an unabashed crook with no concerns beyond his personal pleasures, material gain, and blind loyalty. Has the world gotten so unscrupulous that only the viciously dishonest can pull us through these hard times? Are we so afraid of being robbed that we can only trust the leadership of thieves?
Throughout the ages, human society has consisted of a civilized veneer over a reality of feral ruthlessness, with violently selfish men (and occasionally, similarly inclined women) generally in charge. Despots have tyrannized their subjects and conquered their neighbors. Mankind’s story is one of murder, slavery, and robbery. Pillage and piracy are merely smart business practices. More often than not, the most heinous examples of human misbehavior have risen to the top. But the forgotten commoners have at least partially practiced decency and kindness toward each other, out of mutual need. The need for shared kindness is greater than ever. But now, average Americans have democratically chosen the examples and leadership of thuggish bullies.
In this brave new world, despite most Americans’ awareness that Donald Trump is ruthlessly self-centered, he was reelected—after four disastrous years as president, followed by four more years featuring constant revelations of his crimes. Even fundamentalist Christians hailed Trump as God’s choice to lead us through this modern vale of tears into the rapture, and they have reelected the vicious, cruel and greedy leader they always wanted. Not being a fundamentalist, I have no idea how they really feel, but they seem to believe that the only path to infinite, eternal love and peace has nothing to do with loving one’s neighbors here and now.
A look at history (a subject despised by millions, and obviously loathed by most people who are willing to give Trump’s worldview a try) shows that since the dawn of civilization, societies built on cruelty do not long endure. The continuous, worldwide practice of merciless treachery has ultimately landed us all in a world on the brink of disaster, ruled by vicious thieves who are neither willing nor able to solve society’s problems. As mankind nonetheless progressed, more people have learned that violent self-centeredness only generates more of the same. For a few centuries, led largely by Americans, humanity tried to do something different. But that experiment was stopped cold in the 2024 election, when Americans elected a convicted criminal who doles out kindness only if there is something in it for him, and never tires of scamming a terminally ignorant population—overturning the lessons I personally have learned over a lifetime.
I understand that no one is perfect. Henry David Thoreau confessed: “I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.” Same here. But I have never felt comfortable when lying, cheating, stealing, or abusing. Fortunately for my emotional health, I have never practiced cruel selfishness with much success, which has doubtlessly compelled me to try living honestly, empathetically, and kindly—as I have been taught. Now I find that being kind is easier, and more pleasant, than otherwise. I have also learned that most of the people I encounter gladly return decency and respect in kind. I am convinced that we could live in a safer, calmer, happier world if we all followed Huxley’s simple lifelong lesson: “Try to be a little kinder.” But kindness does not mean lying down for mistreatment. Our nation is now ruled by the cruel and crooked. We must stand up to them. We can be kind to them by not letting them think they can get away with crooked cruelty.
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