What Happened to the Survival Instinct?

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The world is a dangerous place. It’s always been a dangerous place. This hasn’t changed because of a gradual increase in the sophistication of laws and rules that govern society or recent improvements in technology. And no amount of positive psychology or popular narrative about “love” or “peace” has changed this fact. If anything, this psychological conditioning has made the world more dangerous for people because it created a false sense of security that can easily be weaponized against people.

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Somewhere along the way in history people became separated from some of their more essential primal [“survival”] instincts. In particular, they lost touch with their ability to sense danger and threats.

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Maybe it was our evolutionary development from hunter and gatherer to agriculture that led to a sedentary civilization. No doubt the change from having to constantly defend against the elements and wild beasts just to survive to cultivating plants and animals in a more controlled environment would naturally have a domesticating effect on people.

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Maybe it was the human preference for pleasure over pain that led to the mummification of the natural survival instinct. The realization that life is replete with dangers and constant threats is often too anxiety-provoking for people. So, they consciously dissociate from this reality instead seeking out and engaging in distracting pleasures. They create a self-enclosed protective bubble.

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Or maybe it was the self-deceiving belief that safety can be found in numbers, so the more we associate with others, the safer we will be. Although it may seem that numbers bring security, it can in actuality be quite the opposite. In the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, “in individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”

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Whatever the reason, the very instinct that ensured our survival for millennia has been entombed in the unconscious of most people, sedated by nonuse. This survival instinct on an individual level has been replaced by the social contract on a collective level.

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People have traded their basic survival instinct for the expectation that the group will protect them. This is a trust based on hope, and “hope in reality is the worse of all evils because it prolongs the torments of [humans].” (also, Nietzsche).

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Here, hope and trust do nothing to actually ensure self-defense from threats. And no matter how much a person associates with a group, at some point that person will be alone, without the protection of the group. What then?       

The Danger of Social Constructivism   

       

For any social contract to work, all parties involved must meet their individual obligations. But this is a big ask because it requires all parties to honor their commitment to the social contract. And human nature shows that honoring commitments and agreements is more the exception to the rule than the rule with people. This is especially relevant in our time now where more and more, people are refusing to honor their obligations in contractual transactions in the name of ideological beliefs and abstract and ambiguous conceptions of justice and equity.

 

The emergence of the social contract has led to sociological theories like social constructivism that holds knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. While there is truth to this, and socialization can serve a protective and defensive function, a downside is the displacement of individual instincts by groupthink and “morally superior” social norms. Thus, to be “safe” and “secure” here, the individual must exchange their bioevolutionary survival instincts for protection by the group. 

 

This, however, does not actually protect the individual. Rather, it creates a false sense of security that brings the individual into a state of self-deception where they are vulnerable to those in the group whom would do them harm. And without the natural survival instinct to warn the individual of potential threats, they are left at the mercy of the group and its multitude of threatening intentions.

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But what can one do?

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As humans, we are caught between being an individual and asserting our autonomy and interacting with others and engaging our social nature. This dichotomous dynamic creates a tension from the contradiction between the two.

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This is a tension many people are never able to resolve so they default to the protections of the group versus asserting their own active agency as an individual. This is only half the person though because they’re as much an individual as they are a social animal. Thus, this doesn’t resolve the tension because it ignores their individuality. 

   

But there is a way to be the social animals we are whilst still utilizing our survival instincts as a defense against threats. Vigilance is key here. This vigilance can serve as a protection against vulnerability. Simply put: being “on guard” can protect us from threats and dangers; dropping our guard can make us easy targets.  

     

In a World Where Dangers and Threats are Real, Vigilance can Ensure Survival

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Remaining vigilant is critical to ensuring one’s personal safety. No amount of social interaction or group identification will substitute for this. Although this reality never changed, many people have chosen to deny it and create another self-deceptive “alternate” reality in its place. 

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Although it’s been important all throughout history, being vigilant is particularly relevant in our time now where people are literally attacking other people in the streets in the name of ideological beliefs with revolutionary fervor. To the person who has been sleeping through the decades in a self-induced coma of complacency, this recent uptick in social violence may come as a shock. But to the astute observer who has remained situationally aware and vigilant as the social climate became hotter and hotter, this was expected.

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Vigilance enables the individual to detect threats and danger before they lead to harm. Being situationally aware of our surroundings allows us to see the danger and formulate a timely response accordingly. When we are constantly attentive to our surroundings, we will be more responsive to signs of danger and threats.  

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Being able to pick up on subtle cues indicating threats is not exclusive to the emergency service and defense industry communities (although they receive more training on this). This ability (or at least the potential for it) derives from an innate primal instinct, sometimes dormant, sometimes active, that exists within each of us. The trick is to keep it active, always on and at the forefront of our daily activities. This requires maintaining a state of vigilance—not an easy task nor a popular one (remaining constantly vigilant can be mentally exhausting).  

     

Humans can, at any time given the circumstances, devolve from civilized human beings to violent maniacs without conscience. Keeping this realization always at the forefront of one’s mind is an advantage because it helps ensure that person’s survival.  

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This isn’t to say that survival requires a person to be paranoid to the point of being psychotic. Nor does this translate into not being able to trust anyone. But to be safe and secure in a dangerous world, the person must maintain a constant state of vigilance in their surroundings. Otherwise, they are left at the mercy of those who would do them harm.

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Ignorance may be blissful for those who wish to insulate themselves against the harsh realities of life but it won’t actually protect them against these harsh realities. It will, however, make the ignorant person more vulnerable to the threats and dangers in life.

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Danger and threats are an inextricable part of living—but nature has given us an advantage through vigilance.

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At the end of the day, the group won’t protect the individual but the individual can protect theirself. Like it or not, believe it or not, life is dangerous and threatening. Each individual must choose whether they want to accept this fact and increase their chances of survival in the world or ignore it thereby making themselves more vulnerable to worldly dangers and threats.