Civilization and Its Deviations

Konrad Lorenz was born in 1903 in Vienna and died there in 1989. He studied medicine and zoology, becoming a professor of comparative psychology in Königsberg in 1940. Between 1950 and 1973, he served first as director at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Buldern, and later in Seewiesen. He subsequently became the coordinator of the “Konrad Lorenz” Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.

Konrad Lorenz / Source: Wikimedia Commons

In his book, The Eight Deadly Sins of Civilized Mankind (Humanitas, Bucharest, 2024), the Nobel laureate expresses his concerns. These “sins” refer not to strictly moral concepts but rather to the inherent deviations of modernity. As we will see, they are anthropological and social lapses, shortcomings of humanity in its current condition. Here they are, as summarized by the author:

1. “Overpopulation of the Earth”, which, by an excess of social contacts, forces each of us into a fundamentally “inhuman” form of isolation. At the same time, the overcrowding of many individuals in a small space directly triggers aggressive behaviors.

2. “Destruction of the natural living space”, which not only destroys the surrounding environment we live in but also any reverence humans have for the beauty and grandeur of a creation greater than themselves.

3. “Mankind’s competition with itself”, which accelerates technological development to our detriment, rendering people unable to perceive true values and robbing them of the time necessary for genuinely human activities like reflection.

4. “The disappearance of strong emotions and affections due to a numbing process”. Advances in technology and pharmacology foster an increasing intolerance of even the slightest discomfort. Consequently, people lose their ability to experience the kind of joy that can only be achieved after long efforts to overcome obstacles. The natural contrast between joy and suffering fades into the barely perceptible fluctuations of a nameless boredom.

5. “Genetic decay”. Aside from a “natural sense of justice” and certain legal traditions passed down over time, modern civilization lacks any factors that exert selective pressure on the evolution and maintenance of social behavior norms. With societal development, the absence of such factors is increasingly felt. It’s possible that many infantile behaviors, which cause large segments of today’s “rebellious” youth to become social parasites, have genetic underpinnings.

6. “The breakdown of tradition”. This leads to a critical point where the younger generation can no longer culturally connect with the older generation, not to mention any form of identification. The younger generation will treat the older one as a foreign ethnic group, harboring feelings akin to nationalistic hatred. This inability to identify stems primarily from a lack of contact between parents and children, potentially causing pathological effects even during infancy.

7. “The increasing receptiveness of humanity to indoctrination”. The consolidation of large numbers of people into a single cultural group, combined with the advancement of technical means, influences public opinion toward an unprecedented uniformity of thought in human history. Furthermore, the suggestive power of a successful doctrine increases with the number of its adherents, possibly following a geometric progression. In some places, individuals who deliberately withdraw from mass media influence, such as television, are already considered pathological cases. The effects of losing individuality are welcomed by all who wish to manipulate large populations. Opinion polls, advertising techniques, and skillfully directed fashion trends help major Western producers and Eastern officials alike to gain the same kind of power over the masses.

8. “The nuclear arms race” presents humanity with dangers more easily avoidable than those posed by the previously discussed processes.

Konrad Lorenz / Source: Wikimedia Commons

The dehumanization described in the first seven chapters is facilitated by the pseudo-democratic doctrine which asserts that it is not the organization of the human nervous system and sensory organs—shaped by their phylogenetic evolution—that determines social and moral behavior. Instead, it is merely the “conditioning” to which humans are subjected during their ontogeny by the influence of the surrounding cultural environment.

Of course, each shortcoming can be discussed separately. It’s also possible to create our own “list,” more or less similar. However, for now, we can consider this enumeration a starting point. It should be noted that the original book cited here was published in 1973. Since then, things have changed, swords have been sharpened, and factions have been reconfigured.

However, by and large, the challenges remain more or less the same.