Humankind by Rutger Bregman

So many parts of Bregman’s most recent book inspire a wry smile from the reader, a sort of pride and satisfaction in something that you rarely ever feel proud of; being human. It confirms something we are all suspicious of but sceptical to proudly declare - that we are actually alright.

I listened to him speak on a past episode of Oenone Forbat’s podcast Adulting, and his calm optimism and realistic faith in the world and in goodness made me read his most recent book.

Humankind is an optimistic view of human’s collective and individual nature. It plays with what Bregman confesses is a ‘radical idea’ – the idea that, when a crisis hits, humans become their best selves; that people are good.

He speaks on the negative correlation between news and reality that creates a downward-spiralling view of humanity. The less an event happens, the more it is reported on – leading us to the easy assumption that the world must be a horrendous place if all we see on the news is death and hatred, when in fact, the opposite is true.

He debates, speculates, and supports his ‘radical idea’ using historical events, news, anecdotes, philosophy, politics, ethics and culture.

Dmitri Belyaev, Bregman explains, proved through domesticating Silver Foxes, that it is often not the fittest that survive, but instead, it is the survival of the friendliest. He proves through careful fact-checking of age-old assumptions that we are, in fact, hardwired to be friendly, social, honest, and caring. We, the only animals who blush, or whose formation of the eye shows where we are looking, were born to tell the truth, to be vulnerable, to make eye contact, and to form connections through this.

The development of cruelty and selfishness, he explains, is artificial, inflicted on us by something that is not in our DNA. Even in war, the most horrific of human creations often used to dispel ideas of the goodness in the human spirit, he proves that we are still good, indomitable. We played football in no man's land, ‘business as usual' went on after bombings, and countless soldiers never fired their weapons in combat.

His revolutionary faith and optimism in both himself and the people he shares the world with radiates through the book. It is a call to action to not give in to the pessimistic and abandoning view that we and everyone else are doomed to succumb to the evilness of everyone but ourselves, which, Bregman explains, is flawed logic in and of itself.