Jeremy Griffith has solved (at least explained) the human condition. Yay. But...

𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿.

I've been thinking about Jeremy Griffith's work on the human condition — his claim that once we understand the biological conflict between instinct and consciousness, the inner battle just... resolves.

"With understanding, the need to be angry, egocentric and alienated simply falls away – not through willpower, but because the inner battle is finally resolved."

Sounds good, doesn't it. Maybe that's why it's been taken up eagerly as "finally solving the human condition".

Mind you, I like Jeremy Griffith's explanation.

But I can't agree with his optimism.

Like "if knowledge were all it takes, we'd all be billionaires," understanding doesn't make our instincts disappear or even retreat.

If anything, it helps to engage them with empathy and compassion.

That's valuable. But it's not the same as resolution.

What I've seen:

Many humans have already crossed into showing up with empathy and compassion despite their instincts screaming their dissent. They just practiced. Again and again. Until empathy became the default response instead of the exception.

Griffith's explanation might accelerate this for the human race. I hope it does. At the very least, it might give many people a reason to do the inner work to show up differently.

But... you, me, and everyone else still has to do the work.

It takes time. It has to sink into your bones before it becomes the default.

At the level of the human race, it'll take even longer. Because for empathy and compassion to become the human default, it needs to sink into our genetics and epigenetics.

So, the inner battle will be with us for a long time to come. Several generations, at the very least. And if the experience of Buddhist cultures is anything to go by, 2500 years won't be enough considering the wars of the recent past and the conflicts still flaring up.

I'd love to hear your take on this.