History Main / InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves

Frequently, characters (both human and otherwise) will claim that it is in the nature of the human race to destroy itself. When it's a member of an alien species (except for [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy members of a warrior race]]), they are generally looking down on us as primitive, violent, and socially unacceptable.

A SubTrope of HumansAreBastards. Contrast ApeShallNeverKillApe. See also PretextForWar.

* Fullmetal Alchemist: This may be one of the reasons most homunculi look down on humans, especially for Lust and Envy.

** Actually, this troper thinks "The Gentle Vultures" ''subverted'' InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves. The Hurrians have already pulled their "wait until they ruin their civilization and then send in the AllDevouringBlackHoleLoanSharks" plot on other species before they even found Earth--it's their version of FirstContact. Humanity has the same evolutionary roots as the other self-destructive species (large primates, as opposed to small primates like the Hurrians), but, as mentioned above, the Hurrians are still waiting for the "destroying ourselves" part. [[HumansAreSpecial It's In Your Nature To Not Destroy Yourselves As Much As You're Supposed To]]?

** In the remake, Klaatu visits Earth because our self-destructive nature is endangering the ecosystem of the Earth. Life is so rare in the universe that the alien community considers the biosphere of a planet far more valuable than any single product of that ecosystem.

-->-- Thomas Hobbes, ''Leviathan''

-->-- Hobbes, ''CalvinAndHobbes''

Frequently, characters (both human and otherwise) will claim that it is in the nature of the human race to destroy itself. When it's a member of an alien species (except for [[ProudWarriorRace members of a warrior race]]), they are generally looking down on us as primitive, violent, and socially unacceptable.

According to the more pessimistic sociologists, this is TruthInTelevision. Even the non-heavy drinkers agree that we possess this tendency. The basic reason for this is that our technical ingenuity -- that is, our ability to devise new ways of building and doing things -- is advancing faster than our social ingenuity -- that is, our ability to devise new ways to associate and relate with one another. Part of this problem stems from our biology -- at the core of every mammal brain is a snappish crocodile that is upset when others enter its territory or make sudden moves around them. Behavioral patterns that once ensured our survival now court destruction. Luckily, the desire for self preservation keeps this in check - there's a reason the United States never had a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union: they didn't want to be destroyed themselves.

[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]

--> '''John:''' *observing two children playing around and pretending to shoot guns at each other* We're not going to make it, are we. People, I mean...

** This is also Skynet, itself's, most damning criticism of humanity and one of the reasons it turned against us in the first place. Its assessment of us, as a species, is similar to ''[[TheMatrix Agent Smith's]]'' below. No wonder how this mantra leaked down to this particular T-800. Our subversion of this trope is one of our greatest strengths, and most powerful weapons against the cruel, calculating Skynet.

* In the ''TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'', Optimus Prime remarks, "We have seen your capacity for war" as a reason for not giving Autobot technology for humans.

* ''TheMatrix: '' Agent Smith gives Morpheus the whole spiel. Humans are a disease that plagues the land, they use all the resources and destroy everything before moving on, etc etc etc.
** Although, given that humans are 'definitely' the ones who "scourged the sky," making life on earth impossible and destroying the entire biosphere on the logic that 'the enemy robots are solar-powered,' he seems to have a very good point. If they were slightly less mean and nasty, it would be easy to side with the A.I. here. I mean, they didn't have to keep us alive at all. They could have used ''cows''.

* LarryNiven's short story ''War Stories'', part of his "Draco Tavern" series, an ship full of alien explorers came across Earth and made recordings several battles during World War II. The recordings made them rich, so they came back to Earth to film more "war stories", knowing that such a warlike species as ours would eventually nuke ourselves back to the stone age. When we didn't, the alien film producers were forced into bankruptcy.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]

** Says the man who refused to destroy the Daleks until they perverted his own race into omnicidal madmen and then exterminated them both. {{Moral Myopia}} much Doctor?

* In ''StargateSG1'', it is ''repeatedly'' and ''repeatedly'' shown what high technology can do to civilizations that aren't "ready" yet.

** The Tollans and Asgard refuse to share technology with Earth, for the same reason, although the Asgard do share shield and beam technology later, but no weapons (until very, very much later).

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]

** A similar, more "meta" aspect of nature is when a new trait arises in a species, and natural selection allows that trait to survive long enough to spread to the rest of the species, thus continuing the process of evolution. However, the evolved trait could ''eventually drive that species extinct'', thus [[LogicBomb because a species adapted by evolution, it went extinct.]]

** A similar, more "meta" aspect of nature is when a new trait arises in a species, and natural selection allows that trait to survive long enough to spread to the rest of the species, thus continuing the process of evolution. However, the evolved trait could ''eventually drive that species extinct'', thus [[LogicBomb because a species adapted by evolution, it went extinct.]]

[[AC:Other]]
* This is a popular explanation of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox Fermi Paradox]]: Given the large number of stars and planets in the visible universe, it is likely that a number of extra-terrestrial civilizations exist. But -- why haven't we found any?
** Because our technology for the purpose is totally not up to the job yet? We just proved there are extrasolar ''rocky planets'' a few years back.

* The "your nature" aspect of this trope is usually taken to mean that it's ''human'' nature to destroy ourselves and/or our environment. But ''every organism on Earth'' stays alive by exploiting whichever resources its biology depends on, meaning that '''any''' species can destroy itself by getting too good at eating, breathing, and/or excreting.

* The "your nature" aspect of this trope is usually taken to mean that it's ''human'' nature to destroy ourselves and/or our environment. But ''every organism on Earth'' stays alive by exploiting whichever resources its biology depends on, meaning that '''any''' species could be said to be "destroying itself", simply by eating, breathing, and/or excreting.
** Well, most species don't ''over-exploit'' said resources. That's one of the differences between humans and the rest of living beings.

* Bad Religion's "Individual" takes place no more than [[TwentyMinutesInTheFuture 20 minutes in the future]]:

[[CrapsackWorld Urbana is oozing like a bloated carcass]] with maggots \\
cooking in the desert heat[...] \\

Catapulted ever faster by the arrow of time

* Though not about humans, in DanceInTheVampireBund [[{{Lolicon}} Mina]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Tepes]] says vampires don't poses the threat of whiping humans completely because of this.

* In OctaviaButler's ''{{Xenogenesis}}'' trilogy of books, the alien Oankali say that humans combine two traits--intelligence and hierarchical social structures--that will inevitably lead to our self-destruction. Some of the viewpoint characters are human/Oankali hybrids (which have the intelligence without the hierarchical behavior), and they can directly perceive this contradiction--they know that leaving any humans unmodified will simply doom them to self-destruction.

* The chorus of ''Blood Brothers'' by Papa Roach:
-->It's in our nature to destroy ourselves,\\
It's in our nature to kill ourselves,\\
It's in our nature to kill each other,\\
It's in our nature to kill, kill, kill !

-->'''Liberty''': "I can only imagine what the Zerg and Protoss thought when they landed on planet after planet that consisted of nothing but Confederates and rebels whaling the tar out of each other. They probably thought it was the normal behaivor pattern for our race. And I suppose they would be right."

* This is a popular explanation of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox Fermi Paradox]]: Given the large number of stars and planets in the visible universe, it is likely that a number of extra-terrestrial civilizations exist. But -- why haven't we found any?

--> '''John:''' *observing two children playing around and pretending to shoot guns at each other* We're not going to make it, are we. Humanity, I mean...

* In OctaviaButler's ''{{Xenogenesis}}'' trilogy of books, the Oankali say that because of the human contradiction, intelligence and hierarchical ambitions[[hottip:+:i.e., the need to be "better" than others]], inevitably leads to violence, and humans will eventually destroy themselves, as they almost did before the Oankali came along, unless they breed with the Oankali to form a new race to "correct" the contradiction.