Opinion We are not the only species that turns friends into enemies
Both species have a dark side, but the human version is far more powerful and destructive.
My awakening to the chimps’ dark side began in 1970, when one of our researchers observed a brutal attack by a group of our males on a female of a neighboring chimpanzee community. They hit and stamped on her and even seized and killed her infant. The violence was instigated by the alpha Humphrey, whom I and other researchers referred to as something of a psychopath because he had been abusive to females in his own community.
In 1974, our chimp community divided in two, splitting territory that once was shared. This marked the beginning of a series of savage attacks by males of the northern, larger group, led by Humphrey, on males and adult females in the south. From 1974 to 1977, we witnessed the northern males commit what among humans would be called atrocities, including cupping and drinking the blood pouring from the nose of one victim, ripping strips of flesh from another and attempted dismembering. Particularly distressing was seeing one of the males, Rodolf, stand upright to hurl a four-pound rock at young Godi’s prostrate body, and Figan charge and hit, again and again, the mortally wounded, quivering Goliath, who had been his childhood hero.
Virtually all mammals have primal, aggressive drives — mostly linked to survival. However, virtually everywhere they have been observed, the chimps — our closest animal cousins, with brains that are smaller but structurally identical to ours, and who are capable of reasoned thought, abstraction and generalization — also commit deliberate atrocities and exhibit cruelty.
Our species observably shares this dark side. But because of the explosive development of human intellect, ours can be far worse than the chimpanzees’. We have devised and deployed weapons that can inflict massive-scale death and extinguish human civilization.
For the survival of our species, the better aspects of our intellect have also developed sophisticated methods of controlling our aggressive behavior, and of resolving territorial and other conflicts through debate and dialogue — at the ballot box, in the halls of a congress or parliament, or around a negotiating table. Our differences have many times been resolved through cooperation, and our violent conduct constrained by the guardrails put in place with the rule of law. It has not worked in every case. But where democracy has flourished, war has receded.
Living among us today are human versions of Humphrey, alphas who would unravel this progress, to rule us and send us into conflict to feed their lust for power and wealth. As the Gombe chimps formed political coalitions to support an alpha male, wealthy and powerful humans support such leaders in hopes of benefiting materially under a violent and even cruel leader.
I was recently given Mary Wald’s new book, “Sowing Hate and Chaos: How Propaganda Is Used to Destroy Democracy.” In the foreword, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta reiterates that an end to civil discourse and dialogue sets the stage for civil conflict, and calls Wald’s book “an invaluable exposé of psychological techniques that have been used to manipulate populations into just that — an end to the argument, an end to democracy, and a violent end to rights and freedoms.” According to French neuropsychiatrist Roger Mucchielli and other psychologists mentioned in the book, purposely aggravating the primitive drives among humans, or “lighting the fires of these ‘exploitable feelings,’ can create emotional reactions deep enough to cause the person to act in ways he or she would not otherwise act. Knowing how to do this allows someone to direct another’s behavior. And it can be done without the person even knowing it is being done.” Among the techniques they describe is painting false realities around groups and populations to purposely stimulate fear of imminent destruction of one’s family and community by “others,” stimulating the same instinctual aggression that drove horrific violence in the Gombe chimps.
“Sowing Hate and Chaos” cites four instances of these manipulative techniques being used to incite wars and genocides of the past century, by leaders who can only be described as psychopathic and who used the resulting chaos to rise to power. The chimps’ aggression brought death and suffering to only a few individuals; the pernicious use of mass manipulation of these primal human drives has led to the deaths of millions of people.
I believe that, like our chimpanzee cousins, most people are decent and peace-loving. If we hope to ensure for following generations the peaceful existence many of us have enjoyed, we need leaders and active citizens in all levels of our societies who will stimulate the compassionate and cooperative instincts we share with other primates, who encourage us to find the best in ourselves and work together to tackle the formidable problems we face.
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