My wife has been reading me snippets of her new read Human Kind which challenges much of the thinking we’ve been taught to believe through books like The Lord of the Flies.
Rutger Bregman argues that contrary to what has been suggested in William Golding’s superb book, when the chips are down, we don’t turn into self-serving animals, but caring, community-spirited humanitarians.
This is music to my ears and supports what I and many experienced during real-time events like the recent pandemic, what transpires when a catastrophe breaks out, or as happened in past wars: we come together and think of community first, not ourselves.
There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but in the main, it’s why I believe so heartily in a UBI (Universal Basic Income) society which my fellowship, the RSA, have been touting for years. Give someone enough to live on as a matter of course and you remove the need to police the handing out of ‘benefits’, the need for food banks for those who don’t have enough, and the strain on the health service due to an increase in wellbeing… in effect, the UBI’s costs replace the budgets of all of the above and more.
Moreover, it gives those who now don’t have to struggle to survive, the time to give back. And it’s always been my belief that when we have the time and space to be philanthropic, we do so with far more gusto than many would believe. We are human-itarians by nature and the more we allow that ism to thrive, the more we’ll benefit the people and world we live in… at least, that’s what I choose to believe.