Robert Wright is an American journalist and science writer and he is among my favourite evolutionary thinkers. Why Buddhism Is True is one of his most recent books - and I was really surprised that an extremely rational thinker like him makes a plaidoyer for Buddhism. After thinking about it for a while, it started to make sense to me, though. Here is why:
Wright considers adopting a Western version (without any supernatural elements) of Buddhism to taking the red pill in the Matrix. It’s accepting that life is an illusion. He connects Buddhism and evolutionary psychology by giving the example of our love for sugar(y doughnuts). In our past, it was highly advantageous to seek out sweet food as they provided us with more energy than other foods. However, this adaptation (fondness for sweetness) has become a problem in our modern world, where sweet foods are abundant and can lead to serious health issues. This is called an evolutionary mismatch.
Our modern world represents more mismatches for some people than others, though. I have argued before that we basically live in a farmer world. However, not all people are “farmer types”. According to our ancestral mode of subsistence, there are also herder and hunter-gatherer types. The latter generally find life harder in a farmer society with its 9-5 jobs, as they haven’t got the genes that make them enjoy 9-5 routine work, which mostly serves materialistic productivity. Hunter-gatherer types are neither made, nor much motivated for this kind of work.
It is therefore not a big surprise that Wright (INTJ in MBTI), like many other hunter-gatherer types, feels that many things in life are illusions. He displays many typical symptoms that our modern world creates for hunter-gatherer minds:
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Questioning the meaning of it all
Like Wright, Gautama Buddha was also a hunter-gatherer type, who lived around 2500 years ago in a farmer society. He was born into a rich aristocratic family, and yet renounced all his worldly possessions. For many people who dream of having good material lives, this is unimaginable. For Buddha, it was the most “logical” thing to do. Like Wright, he belonged to the analytical hunter types (INTP) and intuitively knew that he was not born to accumulate wealth like farmer types were. Like Wright, he probably suffered from anxiety and ADHD. Mindfulness derived from Buddist meditation can be seen as a cure for our hunter ADHD ailments. It is little surprising, therefore, that it is mostly hunter-gatherer and herder types who are interested in mindfulness.
Out of all religions, Buddhism is the most “hunter-gatherer” one. Other religions like Christianity are mostly farmer religions (originally hierarchically structured polytheism) with egalitarian hunter-gatherer monotheistic modification. Buddha, however, created a completely new religion based on his insights. Everything about Buddhism indicates hunter-gatherer existence in a farmer world: life is suffering - no it isn’t for farmer types (it may be hard work, but hardly suffering). Seeking the truth: trying to understand what’s behind it all and finding the true meaning of life for hunter-gatherer types. Meditation: putting restless (overexcitable) hunter-gatherer minds into a peaceful state. Right speech: No lying, criticism, condemning, gossip, harsh language. Right Speech involves abstaining from lying, gossiping, or hurtful talk. Samma ajiva: Right livelihood: Support yourself without harming others. Right Livelihood means making your living in such a way as to avoid dishonesty and hurting others, including animals.
Out of all types, hunter-gatherer types have the most mismatched environment in our modern world. This results in existential angst, anxiety and depression. It is therefore not surprising that Buddhism is particularly appealing to hunter-gatherer types in the western world.
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