Surviving in the right way

An opinion from the Internet:

“You were asking what the fundamental driving force of human development is, it is survival.”

Yes, you are right, we are driven to survive. But again, why is the way humans survive different from other animals?

After all, animals are also driven to survive, they fight for their existence, they even kill each other for their place in the hierarchy as humans seemingly. Still, there is a huge difference.

Animals kill out of necessity, they fight for hierarchy in order to secure the most optimal survival for their species. And while they do so, they never breach the general laws of balance and homeostasis, they never consume more than they need, they do not leave their natural habitat — unless some natural catastrophe or human intervention forces them to do.

The predator kills as this is how it is programmed, but eats only what it has to and needs to take to its family and leaves the rest for secondary predators and scavengers. Moreover, they kill the weakest link in the prey species, and by that indirectly positively influencing natural selection.

Now contrast it to humans, how they excessively overconsume beyond their needs — we do not even know what we truly need — we enjoy harming, robbing, even killing others, we humiliate, exploit, hurt others to prove we are higher, better, stronger, our greatest pleasure comes from proving we are above others.

The only difference — both in a positive and negative direction — between humans and other animals is the human ego. And in order to know how to use this ego positively, constructive instead of sleepwalking towards self-destruction, we need to learn about ourselves and get the tools of harnessing, channeling the ego.

After all, in Nature “survival of the fittest” does not mean the survival of the most brutal, or the strongest bully, but it means the “fittest to integrate”. According to the human interpretation of this law, there is no life only destruction, while Nature creates and sustains life.