We're complex. At the root of it all, most of us want survival. It's in our genes. Animals that don't want to survive.... don't. And then they don't reproduce if they don't survive. Humans want to survive, obviously.
Now, because we are a clever species with unusual abilities, we can form things like societies and communities. This is beneficial: A lone human wandering on the Savanah ain't gonna live very long if he or she has to fight and find food for themselves. Those clever humans who entered societies and co-operated with others tended to live longer and have more children. So, natural selection selected for humans who were co-operative and sane enough to form communities.
However, this is where it gets complicated. At the root of the issue is, again, survival. Instead of individual concerns over survivability, humans started to care about the survivability of the group (so long as the group was perceived to take care of them). But humans then started fighting with other groups to ensure that their group survived. Over time, these "groups" have grown larger: From families, to clans, to tribes, to settlements, to villages, to towns then to cities, then nation-states and finally to empires or Supra-national blocs. Because humans form emotional attachments to their group and derive a sense of identity and place in them, they resist merging with other groups, even if it would make sense to do so. That's why humans still fight over petty differences and resources - we're still fighting for the survival of "our tribe" against "other tribes", because we think in the long term, our children and our families will have a better chance of survival in our group.
So what about anti-social miscreants? Serial killers? Bad people? Well, no one ever said humans were simple. Our neurological make-up IS determined in part by our genes. There is good evidence that genes can affect things like your temper, propensity to commit violent acts, sexual infidelity and your ability to empathize. However, genes don't exert TOTAL control - there is a fair amount of random chance in development. Genes can also mutate, or fail to function correctly - biology is messy, and humans follow developmental TRENDS, but we don't grow or form in EXACTLY the same way. This means that there WILL ALWAYS be psychopaths whose brains formed badly, or people who lack empathy. Also, we have emotional and animalistic traits that are hang-overs from our more primitive past. We have a rational intellect, but we also have a primitive emotional side to us. Our rational intelligence has allowed us to create a society and a civilization.... but since evolution works on the scale of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS to MILLIONS of years, we haven't evolved well enough to keep up with our radical social changes. In the past, Rape was evolutionarily selected for - the more women you got pregnant, the more chances your genes would be past down. In the primitive past, where there was no police, no judicial system and where there was no educational system, rape was fairly easy to carry out and get away with. Thus, it was selected for.
But natural DOES NOT MEAN GOOD. Rape is a horrible crime. It always was, it always will be. Our rational side realizes this: we want to live in a society in which rape does not occur, because we want to live in a society in which harm and distress are to be kept to an absolute minimum. We also have other ways of reproducing and having families other than rape. Our intellect has allowed us to construct a society in which not only is Rape disadvantageous to your ability to have a family (you could end up in jail, and the victim would get an abortion), but acknowledged as a evil act since we have been educated and brought up in a society in which we should consider our fellow citizens and human beings as members of our "group". Unfortunately, the animal still exists within us, and until we introduce genetic alterations, it always will.
Violence and anger and "Us Vs Them" attitudes are all hangers on from our animalistic, primitive, brutal past. We still feel illogical, insane emotions because our brains are FLAWED. Deeply, deeply flawed.
But there is hope: we're also an intelligent species. A malleable species. Part of living in a society is the ability to blend into that society. We have neurological and mental tools that allow us to be educated and alter our behaviour. We couldn't create new societies if we didn't have such mental tools. Progress IS possible. Although rape was common place in our past (and sadly, in some parts of the world, it still is), most developed countries now outlaw it. Our society is finally seeing the negative, horrific aspects of rape, and we have tried to ban it. Women used to be horrifically oppressed throughout human history because in the past it was genetically advantageous to keep your wife at home birthing kids all the damn time. But now, with our industrial society, we need to recognize that women being in the work force and being able to think and speak for themselves is infinitely more humane and advantageous, since it makes our workforce at least 50% more productive and inventive. Violence used to be a great way of getting food for "your group", and although we still fight, we have learned that random, anarchaic violence against your own citizens is a bad thing for the stability of society.
We're learning. We're growing. But although we develop intellectually and culturally every single day, our biology takes CONSIDERABLY longer to develop. We'll be stuck with animalistic traits for the conceivable future.
The greatest weapon against evil is education and cultural development. Of course, you'll always get your psychopaths who have damaged brains and empathy centres - and you'll have to remove those people from society by placing them in prison (castrating them too would be a good idea, but only for the really crazy ones: Serial killers and torturers. They shouldn't be allowed to have kids).
This is why I am in favour of mass genetic alteration to the human genome. It's partially the reason I went into genetics. Nature can't move fast enough for us to get rid of our animalistic, moronic, primitive emotions. Our intellect is continuously chained to this awful beast of stupidity and backwardsness. If nature will not quickly get rid of our inner demons... why not science? Let our intellect kill off the barbarian in us, otherwise we'll be stuck with it for who knows how long?
TL
R? We're living in a 21st society with brains that evolved to live in the Savannah. We're Cro-Magnons in suits. We're smart enough to construct societies and laws, and still base enough to want "what's best for us, personally". We're conflicted. We're both good and bad, intelligent and stupid, incredibly developed in some ways and INCREDIBLY primitive in some other ways. We don't always do what is rational. We're not always consistent.
We're 2 parts intellect and 1 part brute.
