Humankind - Rutger Bregman

I was in the library one day looking at the new books and noticed a book called Humankind. Now most of you know I am not a big fan of non-fiction, I prefer to fall into the fictional world. After reading the back cover I was intrigued, but didn't consider it to be a book for Cover to Cocktails until I started reading it. After reading the introduction, I sent a message to Jen and said we have to read this book! The world is so turned around these days that we need something positive to focus on.

Humankind takes the idea that humans are inherently evil and turns it on its head. It tries, and I think succeeds, in proving that humans are inherently good.

The book starts out with a prologue that explores the world war and how bombing cities really didn't have the effect they hoped for. Turns out when people are faced with adversity they pull together instead of running away. We can see real life examples of this with natural disasters where instead of rioting, people help their neighbours. We can even see this when at the beginning of the pandemic most people did their best to protect each other. Remember when we would stand outside our door cheering for health care workers, when people would put drawings in their windows for people to enjoy on the many walks we all took? There are so many examples of people acting for the good of others!

The next section of the book talked about a real life example of The Lord of the Flies and how it turned out much differently than expected. Instead of turning on each other, the boys created a caring society. I loved this story! The boys and the man who rescued them remain friends to this day.

The book looks at ancient human history and how homo-sapiens evolved into what he termed as "homo-puppies." It was very interesting to learn that Neanderthals were bigger, stronger, and had bigger brains, but because they were not social creatures and didn't work together, they were doomed to fail. Homo-sapiens, while smaller, weaker, and not as smart, had social skills that allowed them to thrive. There was an example included about a fox study in Russia and how breeding based on friendliness leads to domestication, which was used as a comparison to Neanderthals and homo-sapiens.

As humans moved from a nomadic lifestyle to a more modern civilization we begin to see more conflict. This seems to be tied to land ownership. As people began to have possessions, they became protective of them and were willing to fight others to protect their land and civilization. Another interesting fact was that prior to civilization as we know it, disease and sickness was rare. Put people all together and we got sicker and maybe angrier. Suddenly there was no way to keep people in their place and leaders started to emerge without the checks and balances that used to exist.

There was also a chapter on Easter Island. I remember being so interested in this Island as a kid and read a few books on how it became inhabited and what happened to the people living there. Those books came to the conclusion that people cut down all the trees, and used all the resources before turning on each other. But Humankind has a different theory, one that I hope is correct!

There was also a lot of examination of many of the psychological studies done in the 1970's. Many of these studies are well known and we had both heard of most of them prior to reading this book. Of course we believed the results as they had been presented to the world, but Humankind looked deeper into the studies and how they were conducted, which pointed to some surprising results. It was interesting to read about the prisoner/guard study that determined guards would automatically treat prisoners horribly, and then learn that guards were given specific scripts of how they were to behave. When the same study played out on a British television show, it was so boring that a second season was never ordered. The guards and prisoners actually got along and there was no drama!

Another famous study was the shock therapy study. A person is asked to act as a teacher and another is the student. Every time the student gets an answer wrong, the teacher has to shock them with increasing voltage. The study suggested that the teacher would go to the maximum voltage, despite the screams coming from the student. In fact most people either refused to continue, or didn't believe they were actually shocking the student so kept going. Jen and I discussed if we would have followed orders had we been participants and we both thought we would, but only because it seems so unlikely that a study at a university would allow you to harm and potentially kill someone.

There was a lot of discussion on policing and the prison system. The system in much of the world is very harsh and results in the release of people with no incentive to change and integrate back into society. There is a prison in Norway that treats prisoners like people. Guards don't have weapons, prisoners live in apartment like settings where they learn to become part of society. The rate of re-offense is extremely low. If we treat people poorly, what do we expect to happen to them? Norway's system makes a lot of sense.

There was a section that talked about management styles. Instead of insisting staff do things the way managers think they should, some companies are giving more freedom to their teams. The teams know what they need to do their job and by having autonomy, they are able to spend resources as needed and do better jobs. It was another reminder that people at the top don't always know what is going on or what is best for the teams doing the work. We need to trust that people will do a good job.

At the end of the book the author had a section called "Ten Rules to Live By." I won't list them here, you need to read the book! But one that hit home for both of us was #7 Avoid the News. The author has a point. The media often shows the most sensational items to get your interest so you watch, but really there are so many good stories out there that we aren't hearing. Now this is a little different in Canada. The local news here usually has three or four top stories, the usual bad news stories, then to fill the rest of the hour there will be light-hearted stories. I often text Jen to tell her about a ridiculous story featured on our local news, like the time a beloved local turkey died....seriously....that was on our news. But we have both been trying to be more selective in the news we pay attention to. The world right now feels out of control and we all need to look for happier things.

Both of us loved this book. It may be the best non-fiction book Jen has read, and I think I can second that as well! The book made us want to be better, more compassionate people. We all need to remember that most people are good!

Ratings

Until next time, have a cocktail, read a book, and be happy!