Hoarder or Sharer?
One of the things I’ve been trying to do as a writer is to understand or, at least describe, human nature. And I’m not sure whether I’m any further forward than when I started. However, I think if you boil it down, human nature has two components that drive pretty well everything we do. One is acquisitiveness. The other is the desire to share.
It’s fairly obvious where these originated in the human psyche. The first is the desire to gather, to keep for a rainy day. To build up reserves. It is a sensible instinct and most animals have it. Squirrels, mice, all save food for a rainy day. Magpies collect shiny things for when they need them. It is the life force that enables creatures to put on fat in the summer to get through the winter.
In contrast, there is the desire to share and co-operate. Parents feed their young. Creatures share (after some jockeying for position) with their family, tribe or species. It is the way of life to share genetic material. Beyond that, we have a civilisation that depends on sharing. Cities, power grids and rewilding projects all rely on co-operation and an instinct for the greater good.
Almost everything I write comes down to these two instincts. But, as with most things, these instincts can become pathological. Saving becomes hoarding. Greed knows no bounds and some individuals cannot stop acquiring and storing away, even if it brings them no personal pleasure and may lead to calamity. Similarly, the assumption of poverty can lead to competitive giving and virtue signalling. It can become thin and mean. Something shared out of duty has little human value.
As a writer I cannot balance the one instinct with the other. They are built in to a greater or lesser degree for all the characters I create. I cannot envisage a future in which these two don’t exist side by side.
I offer these thoughts to such students of the future as my old friend Timo Peach. Surely, in the future, we cannot eradicate one or the other and we will have to seek a future where both instincts and their pathologies continue for as long as there are human beings. Unless, of course, humans give way to new super race and writers like me are left with nothing more to write about.
