First of all, I think it’s useful to decide whether there is such a thing as ‘Human Nature.’ By Human Nature, I’m thinking about the innate essence of what it is to be human - something that cannot be changed, or at least cannot easily be changed. I have the feeling that the way that you are as an adult human has essentially been hard-wired into you by your genetics and by your life experiences up to that point. What you are now is the combination of all of your ancestors back through time, and all that you have ever experienced yourself - your childhood, schooling and all of the learning and culture you have ingested and retained, including all of your rules of thumb, mental models and prejudices that help you get through the day. Inasmuch as there is such a thing as Human Nature, it is the sum of everything that has gone into making each of us who we are.
If there is such a thing, what is the nature of Human Nature? What is it that drives us humans to do the things that we do? Does Human Nature vary around the world? How does Human Nature impact on the cement industry and on the wider world?
In my own experience, I have found that people show a combination of the following traits (in alphabetical order): a desire to be liked; aggression; ambition; anxiousness; arrogance; bolshiness; conservatism; covetousness; credulity; curiosity; cynicism; decisiveness; diligence; dishonesty; fearfulness; friendliness; greediness; happiness; honesty; humility; humourousness; humourlessness; indecisiveness; insecurity; intelligence; irrationality; irresolution; jealousy; joyfulness; kindness; laziness; liberalism; modesty; negativity; openness; optimism; passivity; placidity; pridefulness; radicalism; rationality; recklessness; reliability; resolution; self-delusion; selfishness; stupidity; thoughtfulness; thoughtlessness; unkindness; unreliability; vanity. Many of these are pairs of personality traits, with all of us fitting somewhere between the two extremes. In many of us, we can even vary from day-to-day in our attributes, for example from modesty to vanity, and from negativity to positivity, depending on the circumstances. However, each of us typically has a range - and I would suggest that the range, and tendency for us to inhabit a particular place on the range, would make up our own ‘Human Nature.’ I’ve travelled to over 60 countries and in my experience, humans - and the Human Nature that they exhibit - are not that different around the world.
If all of our individual ‘Human Natures’ were somehow to be combined, or averaged, we could come to a general statement on how humans in general respond to life. My unscientific suggestion for how we as a species approach life - in the light of our combined ‘Human Nature’ - might be as follows:
We are inherently lazy, but are willing to make an effort if that leads to greater longer-term comfort; We have a varying ability to delay our gratification; We are selfish to a greater or lesser extent, but willing to put ourselves out for family and close friends; We like a quiet life and do not embrace change, unless it is change for the better; We prefer to laugh and to enjoy life; On balance, most people are ‘good:’ some people are ‘bad;’ We have a tendency to over-indulge; We prefer to be liked and respected by our peers; We are subject to sloppiness in our thinking and have a tendency to make mistakes; We would like our level of comfort and security to increase; We usually tell the truth; We try to be kind but sometimes fail; Sometimes we believe things that are in fact wrong, including things we believe about ourselves; We prefer to invest our lives with meaning; We variously struggle with or ignore our own mortality and the mortality of those around us; We have a poor understanding of the risks that confront us in the world. Just to be clear, I include myself in all of these statements.
Human Nature impacts on industry in many ways: Anxiety, greed, fearfulness and sloppy thinking can lead to production facilities being built when there is no real need for them; Our curiosity, fear, greed, ambition and desire to be liked have led indirectly to many innovations in industry and technology - and will continue to do so; A variety of ‘Human Nature’ factors can lead to the unreliability of workers (and their replacement by robots and increasing automation); A strong human urge towards greater comfort and security drives domestic consumption (‘Living in a tin shack with a dirt floor? Building with wallboard and using insulation will bring many advantages to you and your family!’).
Human Nature also impacts the wider world. Our greed, ignorance, desire for status and comfort, self-delusion and thoughtlessness are inexorably destroying the world through over-use of resources, rampant consumerism, environmental pollution and over-population.
One final question: Can Human Nature change? They say that ‘a leopard cannot change its spots,’ but our emotional and intellectual responses are surely more mutable than that. Could you change your Human Nature?
