106 – Instinct vs Intellect - a podcast by Alf Herigstad

http://www.beingabettermanpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_0911.jpg ()


INSTINCT vs INTELLECT…
I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was pretty good.  On Saturday I sheared 9 sheep…and today every muscle in my legs and back are sore because of it, but its a good kind of sore.If you read all the way to the end of this I have some news to share with you, I hope you hang around for that, but right now I want to dive into the topic for today.
Everybody knows what instincts are, right?  They are innate, fixed patterns of behavior and responses to certain stimuli.  There are many, many examples of this, we see it everyday.The term instinct is most commonly used when talking about animals.  Birds build nest on instinct.  Squirrels gather nuts, bull Elks fight, Dogs love their owners, cats bury their poop…all of these behaviors are instinctual.  They don’t really have to think about it, they are compelled by their nature to do these things.
I don’t think there was a cat that one day decided…hey, if I bury my poop that will be a lot more tidy and I won’t offend anyone, NO!  Cats are simply compelled to bury their poop because at some point in the development of their species, burying their poop aided in their survival and it got into their DNA.
The reason I am talking about instinct today is because we, humans…are animals as well.  That makes some people mad, but its really kind of scientifically undeniable.  We are biological animals.We are Homo Sapiens of the Kingdom Animalia, the Phylum Chordata, the Subphylum Vertebrata, the Class mammalia, the order primates, and the genus Homo.
We have all the same organs, and our biological systems work just like all the other members of the wild kingdom…and yes, we have instincts too.Humans are kind of special though.  We are at the very top of the food chain.  We drastically alter the world around us.  What else makes us special is that unlike common animals we have the power to create, to innovate, and to imagine….we have, intellect. Some people think our ability to create and innovate is evidence of a spark of divinity that resides within us…while others think it is a gift to humans from the divine, while still others think it is just the way we evolved with our super big brains.  However we got it…the important thing is that we have it.  We possess intellect and reason on one side of the coin and on the other side, we have our instincts and more base functions…because we are also animals.
The title of this episode is instinct VS intellect.  That title implies that the two things are at odds with one another and, many times…I believe they are, at least in how they are applied in today’s world.What prompted me to talk about this, is many times I have seen men directly or indirectly blame their behavior on their instincts, as though they are powerless to behave otherwise…as though they are compelled, like a cat burying it’s poop. 
In other words, I have seen men turn their instincts into excuses.  You all know how I feel about excuses;  they are weak.  They are frail utterances that come out of the mouths of people who are not strong enough to own their own actions.  Excuses are pathetic.Probably the most common mis-use of the word instinct by men is in the case of infidelity, and also less severe cases of sexually inappropriate behavior towards women.  Look, we have a natural sexual attraction and desire, thats healthy and normal, but when men use this attraction as an excuse to behave essentially, like an animal.  Then it becomes disgusting, and very possibly the worst of what it is to be a man.
What really drives me nuts is when society buys into that.  Society itself starts making excuses for men and you hear things like “boys will be boys”, or “well he’s just a man, he can’t help it,” and a host of other common excuses for men, when they are not acting like men.Many of the instincts we possess as humans are very helpful, they even save lives.  Like...

Further episodes of Being A Better Man

Further podcasts by Alf Herigstad

Website of Alf Herigstad