When the political kerfuffles of the day start to really grate on my nerves, one of the ways I cope with it all is to spend some time considering the long view (the really long view) and the big picture (the really big picture) and after a while, come back to my own tiny life with a little more perspective.

People wonder: is the country in decline? Has the world gone mad? What will become of us? Let’s expand the view. Is our species in decline? Has homo sapiens gone mad? What will become of the last remaining upright walking hominid, the one with the big brain and opposable thumbs, the one who took tool-making to the next level, the one who painted the caves?

What are we? Smart monkeys. Smart apes. Smart animals. We mentally separate ourselves, but we shouldn’t. We have instincts. We are largely controlled by biochemical cascades in our brains. We have evolved to cooperate in groups and be loving to those close to us because it enhanced our survival as a species, but we have also evolved an aggressive, violent side, capable of horrific atrocities in the modern world, but absolutely necessary for survival in the deep past. These two natures: our loving, cooperative nurturing side and our aggressive, impulsive, violent side, coexist within each of us, within all of us collectively. Some religions have labeled it sin. I call it survival.

Here we are, all of us smart primates, on our smart phones, our bodies and minds still adapted to a world long past, suddenly plopped down into a world with 7 billion of us, all needing the basics of life, all trying to make sense of the world, all still deeply tribal in our ancient brains.

The famous biologist E.O. Wilson famously said, “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.”

Nailed it.

We are simultaneously too smart and too stupid.  We are smart enough to invent nuclear weapons, iPhones, and nano-tech. We are smart enough to figure out how to plunder our planet with maximum efficiency. We are smart enough to write symphonies and paint masterpieces. But we aren’t smart enough to see beyond our own noses. We are too stupid to transcend our evolutionary baggage. The ability to plan for a distant future makes no sense evolutionarily. It is never selected for, but it is what we need right now. The ability to see the global view, to carefully weigh differing bad options, act in a way that benefits people whom you will never meet…none of those traits have any impact whatsoever on short term survival, and will never be evolutionarily selected, but they are exactly what we need.

We are ill equipped for the world we face.

I have come to think that homo sapiens sapiens (what an arrogant name to give ourselves)  is an evolutionary dead end. We have only entered the global scene within the blink of a deep time eye.  If the Earth’s history is a year, humans only arrive at the last five minutes on Dec 31. I suspect we will blip back out of existence before the first five minutes of the new year are done, and the planet will go on its way without us, slowly healing the damage we have inflicted, radiating fantastical new creatures out into the gaps we’ve created by driving other creatures to extinction. I won’t be around to see it, but the thought of it gives me comfort anyway.

So where does that leave us in our tiny lives, right here, right now? I’m smart enough to realize that war is baked into our nature, that even global conflicts stem from the biochemistry in our heads, and that my back aches because walking upright came at a price.  I’m not smart enough to figure out how to get my 7 billion sisters and brothers to simultaneously turn off millions of years of survival instinct and all get along in peace and harmony.

What can I do? I’m smart enough to be able to choose kindness and love for those in my small circle of influence. I’m smart enough to know I have in-group and out-group tendencies baked into my brain, and to try to consciously stretch myself to expand the my circle of compassion. I’m smart enough to understand that life is fleeting and precious, and to make the most of my tiny blip of existence on this still-beautiful world, and it’s enough, this small life. This tiny slice. It is enough. Each of us, what else do we really have in the end? We have our own tiny life, and we have each other, our dear ones. It is enough.

Beyond that?

Most of all, I realize that at the species level, smart is the new stupid.  Homo Sapiens, enjoy the 15 minutes of evolutionary fame (being really generous here). The world will go on.