The last 80 years or so represent an unprecedented historical period of relative global stability following World War II. The Cold War, for instance, tense as it was, was marked by the absence of major wars between the superpowers of the period. This “Long Peace” is highly anomalous. In contrast, between 1823 and 1939, there were 19 large wars, and a major conflict occurred about every 6.2 years.
However, it may be naive to think that this age of peace is due to some jump in human consciousness or unprecedented international order-based political maneuvering. The recent extremely violent wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Africa show that the “Long Peace” may have just been an interlude before humanity is ready to hop back into the endless cycle of dominance, inequality, and destruction that has defined much of our history.
This cycle, it seems, is not a byproduct of human culture or even the politics of our times. According to Professor Jorge A. Colombo, a medical researcher and expert in neuroscience, the urge to dominate and exhibit aggression is evolutionarily etched in the human brain. If this primal survival instinct is not reigned in, the cycle of inequality and division will continue as before. But this time it’s more dangerous than ever because 21st-century technology can be orders of magnitude more destructive than in antiquity.
The Animal Within: How Ancient Drives Shape Modern Behavior
In his latest book, A New Approach to Human Social Evolution, Colombo argues that the roots of human aggression, dominance, and tribal behavior are not merely cultural or political. They are biological, etched into our neural circuits by millions of years of evolution. These primal drives, he contends, continue to shape everything from global politics to economic inequality.
Colombo’s thesis begins with a simple but profound idea: humans are not as far removed from their animal ancestors as we might like to think. “Ancient animal survival drives persist in humans, masked under various behavioral paradigms,” he explains. “Fight and flight remain basic behavioral principles.”
These drives, he argues, are rooted in the basal brain — the most primitive part of our neural architecture. This region governs survival instincts like territorialism, reproduction, and the need for secure food sources. Over millennia, as humans evolved from prey to apex predators, these drives became central to our behavior. But they also came into conflict with the more sophisticated traits that emerged as our brains grew more complex.
Creativity, toolmaking, and language allowed humans to build civilizations, but they did not erase our primal instincts. Instead, Colombo suggests, these higher-order traits merely “camouflaged” or temporarily suppressed our ancient drives. “Even subdued under religious or mystic beliefs, aggressive and defensive behaviors emerge to defend or fight for even the most sophisticated peaceful beliefs,” he notes.
This tension between our animal heritage and our cultural achievements, Colombo argues, is at the heart of many modern challenges. Dominance hierarchies, for example, manifest in politics through military oppression, propaganda, and financial repression. In religion, they appear as punishing gods or esoteric threats. Even education systems, he points out, often rely on forms of punishment and thought conditioning to maintain control.
A Path Forward: Education, Equity, and Universal Values
If our primal drives are so deeply ingrained, is there any hope for change? Colombo believes there is — but it will require a conscious, collective effort. “Profound cultural changes are only possible and enduring if humans come to grips with their actual primary condition,” he says.
Education, he argues, is key. By promoting universal values and fostering individual opportunities, societies can begin to counteract the destructive tendencies hardwired into our brains. This is especially urgent in the face of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, which Colombo warns could exacerbate existing inequalities. “People should proactively create policies to work towards a viable, multicultural, equitable humanity and an ecologically sustainable planet,” he urges.
Colombo’s vision is about reimagining what it means to be human in a world where our ancient instincts constantly clash with our modern aspirations. “The aggressiveness, cruelties, social inequities, and unrelenting individual and socioeconomic class ambitions are the best evidence that humans must first recognize and assume their fundamental nature to change their ancestral drive,” he says.
Colombo’s work arrives at a critical moment. As authoritarianism rises across the world, environmental degradation accelerates, and social divisions deepen, his message is both a warning and a call to action. By understanding the evolutionary roots of our behavior and taking a good look in the mirror, we can begin to address the systemic issues that threaten our collective future.
But this understanding must go beyond academia. It requires a global reckoning with the primal forces that shape our world — and a commitment to building a society that transcends them. As Colombo puts it, “Only through education and universal values can humanity transcend these instincts to foster a more sustainable and equitable society.”
The question now is whether we are willing to confront the animal within—and whether we can rise above it. Or maybe the bigger question is if it’s ever possible for something like ‘education’ to counter-balance millions of years of evolution ingrained in the psyche of every new human born into this world. It’s worth trying though.
