The human evolutionary journey
didn’t remotely prepare us for the world we live in today. Like many evolutionary scientists, Dr. David Barash agreed with that in our recent chat. Barash is a Professor Emeritus at The University of Washington in evolutionary psychology and sociobiology. His list of published research, books, and essays is beyond extensive.
It matters that we didn’t get to the here and now by following a straight evolutionary line, because the distortion of our instincts to take advantage of a literal supermarket of desires and pleasures is endangering our entire habitat. The lizard brain is a hard thing to fight. If dopamine reward was the mechanism guiding us to make choices that ensured our survival, as some research suggests, then once we learned how to manufacture products that made us happy, our instincts made it clear that doing it “more” not only felt “right,” it was a biological mandate.
Many evolutionary scientists also believe that our intelligence was simply another adaptation along the journey. To be sure, it seems like a strange one. Big brains need a lot of food, not usually the direction adaptations go. But the last laugh is on conventional wisdom (not for the first time), because that brain allowed us to hop off the adaptive merry-go-round altogether. Our adaptations were so successful that we don’t need any more of them for our survival. Today, climate change presents us with a do or die challenge, testing whether our intelligence is strong enough to overcome the inner voice of the lizard brain. We only get one shot at this, and so far we’re falling far short.
The title of this post is ironic. There is little value in a good argument when it comes to climate change. We’ve heard them all already. Even the most complete explanation of why we must decarbonize, and why we must reevaluate this entire whiz-bang lifestyle in which we consume so mind-bendingly far beyond the supply of our resources, isn’t enough to make very many people truly willing to give up what must be given up.
We just don’t want to. It feels wrong. The lizard brain tells us it’s wrong. And when a billion years of evolution tells you it’s wrong, it’s too easy and seductive to believe that the crisis isn’t real and that the data must be wrong. So what’s a human to do?
Dr. Barash gave me an interesting answer. He called upon the artists, the storytellers, and the myth makers, the cultural leaders who create the things that bind us within a common identity, to tell new stories. These are powerful things. Songs, stories, and art resonate strongly in a place that’s mysterious and old. If we’re going to re-invent an identity that encourages a new lifestyle lived within our resources, it’s a deep well to draw from.
His suggestion resonates with the strategy offered by Joseph Merz of the Merz Institute in New Zealand. He believes one of the most significant drivers of ecological overshoot was the development of advertising psychology, which was weaponized in the 20th century to make us personally value unnecessary consumption. Merz believes we can use the same tools to reverse-engineer the culture. If consumption can make us feel better about ourselves, we might be able to apply those psychological techniques to make us feel better about consuming less.
I fear the former was so successful because it played into the lizard brain’s hands. We were wired to hear those messages, as soon as the psychology was understood well enough to be useful. I’m not sure the lizard will be so easily fooled in reverse, but I won’t discourage anyone’s solution. We need all the solutions we can get, with every available big brain fully on board.
Barash’s idea makes me think of the epilogue to Pink Floyd’s masterwork The Wall. I won’t be offended if you scratch your head at the analogy. This isn’t at all what Roger Waters was talking about. Still, it gets to the power of artists, and the power of people who rise above themselves for something larger. We need both things, every little bit we can get. To hear more about these ideas, check out the full interview.
Outside The Wall ©1979 Roger Waters All alone, or in twos, The ones who really love you Walk up and down outside the wall. Some hand in hand, Some gathered together in bands. The bleeding hearts and the artists make their stand. And when they've given you their all Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall
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