If we are programmed to be tribal territorial animals, doesn’t it follow that our behavior is preordained, practically predestined, and therefore can not and should not be condemned?
No, it doesn’t.
Simple observation and plain common sense should make that obvious: the “sex drive,” the keenest and most appreciated of all our animal instincts, is never allowed to run rampant in even the most hedonistic of societies. While some may wring their hands and maintain it is running rampant, the facts refute the charge: men simply cannot go out and rape girls, boys, women, or men with impunity, at whim, anywhere in the world that has even the most primitive social structure. Only when there is total chaos and anarchy does that occur: otherwise there are always restraints.
It appears we’re designed that way.
It appears we are designed to be able to consciously moderate and override most of our animal instincts: thus we can choose to be ascetic sexual celibates, flagrant sexual hedonists, or almost anything in between. We are capable of – and expected to – override our hardwired programming with softwired ideas that become promoted to firmwired beliefs.
Accepting that we are tribal territorial animals often motivated by instincts does not in any way diminish us: we are still the same mixture of good and evil – good within our tribes and evil without – that we have always been, and the only (only!) thing the new knowledge brings us is the opportunity to address our chronic problems more realistically … and more wisely.
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