The Human vs Animal Conflict within ourselves

Recently I was at an airport, waiting to board a flight. It was a short one hour flight and most of the boarding passengers were sitting or standing around the departure gate counter.

Shortly, one of the airline staff walked out and announced that boarding would start in 10-15 minutes and they would like to board as per the Zones (starting from the last seats). A usual practice followed during boarding to ensure a smooth settling down of passengers ?inside the aircraft.

Most of the passengers got up and crowded around the departure gate counter. Some of them aged men and women, barely standing, leaning on their strolleys. As the flight had some time to board, the attendant seemed to notice the crowding and made another announcement. “Boarding will take place after 10 minutes and we will first take zone 1. Requesting Zone 1 passengers to line up and the rest please take your seats".

No one moved. Everyone was staring back with glazed, distracted eyes, their minds probably elsewhere. They were ready to get into the aircraft as fast as possible.

Only a handful of ?men and women were sitting, relaxed and preoccupied talking or gazing into their phones.

What is it that makes a set of people to crowd, rush, strain forward, even though there is no real reason to do that? Everyone had a seat, and the flight was half empty. ?There was to be enough space to stow luggage and stretch our legs. Yet, there was a simmering primal urge to rush and grab one’s place, a fear of falling behind, lose one’s ‘rightful share’?

One woman specifically, seemed more restless than the others. While the crowd was maintaining a respectful distance from the counter, she was unable to stop herself from traversing that ‘boundary of control’ and pace around the counter. The crowd was watching her and I could feel the energy, the restrain as the rest of the passengers held themselves back from joining her.

The airline counter staff had been busy prepping for boarding and finally, one of the staff walked out and loudly requested Zone 1 passengers to start boarding. Once the boarding started, ?an imperceptible wave of relaxation seemed to wash over everyone… as people shuffled around and started nudging forward.

No one broke the line, or pushed through. Yet, it was a fascinating drama of primal emotions in humans.

I could draw a broad parallel with a bunch of trained animals, restraining themselves, waiting for the command before lunging at their food.

Though humans have learnt to socialise and live together with a higher moral code, our primal instincts and emotions are simmering under the surface, ready to blow over if the appropriate cocktail of circumstances are provided. When in a crowd, people feed from each other’s energy, and in similar situations, the impact on a crowd is exponentially higher than for a single individual.

Before scientific discoveries shifted our paradigms about nature, God and ‘invisible forces’ it was Religion which played a key role in managing the ‘human animal’. The fear of the unknown, a powerful invisible force 'judging us’ kept us on a leash.

But now God is less of a ‘powerful living presence’ and more of a concept.

In today’s modern world, the fear of societal punishment seems the only overwhelming ‘restrain’ for our animal instincts. The pain of punishment by others (or society at large) if we allow our animal 'urges' to take charge.

On the other hand, we have the story of the football fans from Japan (in the recent Football world cup in Saudi Arabia), picking up the litter after every foot ball match, of their own volition. Their ‘pain of punishment’ probably was within their own group or had been internalized.

Cultural forces and values play a powerful role in ‘internalizing’ the pain of transgressing acceptable behaviour.

In the above described event at the airport, the handful of passengers who refused to be led by the crowd, sitting relaxed in their chairs, had learnt to choose correctly and behave accordingly. ?

In my work of building strong cultures in organisations, I repeatedly come across this conflict between moralistic, human behaviour and the primal animal urges of survival, ‘beating’ others in the game, grabbing and/or resorting to violence (emotional or psychological).

Fear of punishment is still a strong tool to restrain us but sustained self motivated change comes only when there is a cognitive shift. When the correct behaviour is recognised as the ‘only option’ and internalised.

Each group, organisation or society has to identify and administer the most appropriate (and effective) tools to bring about this cognitive shift. It's a continual journey of evolution.