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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 12, No. 2

Publication Date: April 25, 2024

DOI:10.14738/aivp.122.16646

Gurevitz, M. (2024). Innocence and Trust - Forgotten Concepts or Temporary Nuisances? European Journal of Applied Sciences,

Vol - 12(2). 357-358.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Innocence and Trust - Forgotten Concepts or Temporary

Nuisances?

Michael Gurevitz

Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Ecology

George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University

Ramat Aviv 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

Flourishing human societies owe their success primarily to the founding of efficient

administration and supporting systems of communication, education, economy, security, and

international relations. In addition, establishment of instructive principles of moral, ethical, and

behavioral rules are also important in prevention of excessive aggression and violence. When

these positive aspects are accompanied by decency, trust, good will, optimism and ambitious

improvements, the citizen are satisfied and the entire community healthy. However, as shown

through thousands of years of the history of mankind, this utopic reality describes temporary

achievements by only a few societies (e.g., glory days of Athens), raising questions about the

reasons that prevented the accomplishment of such utopia more frequently. Among numerous

possible reasons, a major one might be associated with the fact that humans share with other

mammals’ genetic traits related to territorialism, egoism and aggression when competing for

power and over resources. In the past, these built-in characteristics were important for

survival, but it seems that the time duration ever since was likely insufficient for their

disappearance, and so they remained valid even nowadays. Naturally, these traits might have

affected also the development of human cognition in both positive and negative directions.

Rather than fostering virtuous manners that assuage the interactions between people or

nations (trust, decency, forthrightness), our developed cognition may also promote bad

manners in the endless strive for power and attempts to gain control over resources and other

people. Highly influential on this developmental process was the invention of religion, a

psychological phenomenon elicited by fears of the unknown and death (ref. 1). Although in the

beginning, the intentions of each major religious movement (e.g., Buddhism, Jewism,

Christianity, Islam) strived toward spiritual sanctity and improved manners such as decency,

sharing, giving, peace and love, their followers (‘sanctified mediators’; see ref. 2) exploited the

increasing public popularity and control over the masses to gain power and wealth, while

changing the original intentions of the founders into ruthless holy crusades. Evidently, this

defective developmental trend deterred the advancement of virtuous manners like innocence,

decency, and trust. In addition, daily pressures, competition and constant struggle for survival,

and built-in cruelty (ref. 3), have further affected these developmental processes, and so the

significance of virtuous manners that were always appreciated during childhood (at home and

in school), have faded out with the children growing up. To our regret, we have approached an

era, in which human relations (individual and national) are commonly based on objectification

and utilitarianism, accompanied by cunning, exploitation, and self-indulgence. In as much as

these manners are considered negative, they might also be advantageous, and so they are often

publicly promoted, whereas in parallel, the virtuous manners have depreciated and are

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European Journal of Applied Sciences (EJAS) Vol. 12, Issue 2, April-2024

presently considered naivety. Hence, the natural human need to socialize and communicate has

been replaced by aggressive utilitarianism accompanied by manipulative attempts of

materialistic and spiritual gains (‘Homo homini lupus’). This trend has often led to clashes

among people and between nations, sometimes with unprecedented hatred and extremes

including attempts of total extermination of defeated opponent populations. Another

inexplicable example demonstrating deterioration in relationships among people pertains to

intra-familial difficulties such as the steep increase in disputes, divorces, and even killings, as

well as unbelievable instances of children accusing their parents for inconsideration, abuse and

maliciousness. It seems that humanity has not ripened to avoid violence and is unable to

overcome this evil inclination to regain the virtuous manners of innocence and trust. Such a

reality raises an unbearable inference, namely, to accommodate to modern life, the educational

system should change and rather than teaching the children modesty, decency, morality, and

skills to withstand pressures and face forthcoming difficulties, more realistic (actually

sarcastic) proposition would be teaching them practical ways of cunning, competition

strategies of exploitation, and above all how not to be considered naive.

References

1. Gurevitz, M. (2023) The creation of God in the mind of mankind - a spiritual need or hiding in a cave.

European Journal of Applied Science, 11(6), 145.

2. Gurevitz, M. (2022) Religion - a sophisticated strategy to gain control over the masses. Annals of Depression

and Anxiety, 9(1), 1115.

3. Gurevitz, M. (2022) Human cruelty - a built-in default. Journal of BioMedical Science, 4(2), 1790.