Basic Instinct

No, this is not a movie review. This is inquiry of a low capacity mind; which being unable to chew full sentences feed on words. I was listening to a great writer at Hindu Lit Fest, 2013 and just two words set up my thought process. This is quality of writers; they can leave you thinking in uncharted territories.

What is Basic Instinct? Google tells me it is a movie. Wikipedia confirms this and adds that this movie has a sequel also.

What I was looking for, I found that under the heading Instinct in Wikipedia. Wiki says, “Instinct or innate behavior is the inherent inclination of a living organism toward a particular complex behavior”.

Now question arises that whether this instinct is applicable at individual level or at class level. I think I will redefine my topic as Basic human instinct. This is described in behavioral sciences as - innate part of behavior that emerges in humans without any training or education.

Basic human instinct contains negative emotions like jealousy, greed, vanity etc. So, can we justify our actions as basic human instincts? It is not our fault if we feel jealous and harm someone. We are programmed to do so.

Here, I think the role of education comes in. Education should enable us to make conscious scrutiny of our actions. It should enable our conscious to overrule basic human instinct.