Can human nature be defined by laws ?

Human nature is one of the most intriguing things. You might feel you have a grip on it only to be surprised moments after your EUREKA! So finding laws that govern it or at least an attempt merits a fair amount of applause especially from an author who is a methodical, concise and precise as Robert Greene( he has written 48 laws of power, Seduction, 50 laws of war(not sure if they are 50) ).

What the laws promise are at the back cover of the book

FIRST The Laws will work to transform you into a calmer and more strategic observer of people, helping to free you from all the emotional drama that needlessly drains you.

SECOND The Laws will make you a master interpreter of the cues that people continually emit, giving you a much greater ability to judge their character.

THIRD The Laws will empower you to take on and out-think the toxic types who inevitably cross your path.

FOURTH The Laws will teach you the true levers for motivating and influencing people.

FIFTH The Laws will give you the power to alter your own negative patterns

This gives an air of importance to what you’re doing. The book is a tool and everyone might use it as they might but I love the part where it shows certain tendencies in ourselves that we merely over look because of certain biases. Talking of bias the author is also prone to present material in the light of his world view so to speak so it it advisable to weight each lesson as whole than scrutinise every word as you might miss the big picture.

So here are the things I loved about this book

1. The writing style: it is really good as Greene has the capacity to to methodically write his chapters. First he starts with an interesting narrative of a public figure then he goes on to interpret the text then after he then administers the law of human nature behind the human behaviour portrayed in the narrative. He then goes on to show how this manifests in our personal lives because one thing we are good at is detachment and projection always able to detect fault in others like Jesus put it we are ready to remove a speck in a brother’s eye forgetting the log in our own.

One thing to note is you have to separate the author’s opinion’s which he slides in from time to time.

2. Knowledge from a different fields: Mr Greene did a good job of selecting narratives from different eras in time and weaving them into a coherent flow of ideas. I got to learn about ancient Italy and Greece, Queen Victoria, the French revolution, Leo Tolstoy, and contemporaries like John D Rockefeller and many others. It’s a great way to learn about historical figures with a topping of understanding their motivations or at least logical theories about them. The diversity of the people mentioned implies the multiplicity of fields represented. This has two advantages, firstly you’ll find things that interest you regardless of your field and, secondly it show the way human nature affects people from different cultural backgrounds, careers, religions and geographical regions making it a comprehensive package.

3. Learning to see things as a continuum: Most of the time we see things in the binary: black or white, good or bad, liberal or conservative, wise or foolish. But most the characteristics of human nature are on a continuous scale. Let’s look at aggression for example you will get to learn that everyone is aggressive but they are people who are on the extreme and sometimes because we tend to view all kinds of aggression as negative so we tend to be passive aggressive to find a way to vent out. The same can be said about confidence, selfishness/narcissism, and more others. The important thing is we can equally find ways to channel the even characteristics which are seen as negative into something productive.

4. Understanding some people : It is no ultimate cheat code but it will surely help you rationalise putting you in a position where you are able to understand why people behave in a certain way towards you and other as well as the causes and motivations. Then you are capable of not taking everything personally and flee any form of guilty due to other peoples actions and from this point of enlightenment you can show empathy and equally distance yourself from people who are so overwhelming and destructive or even better find people who can really help them.

5. Learning to take self inventory: By learning about these character you learn about self introspection and the need taking note of your own positive and negative tendencies. Not everything might be useful but I think you’ll find many nuggets.

My take away

Throughout reading this book I was just drawn to the importance of having a relationship with God. Most of the flaws covered are also highlighted in the scriptures giving them even a deeper insights as to the origins of some of these tendencies. The problem sometimes is not everything is materialistic and approaching these things point sometimes leads to just treating symptoms than the disease itself. In line with faith as well it makes us capable dealing things with wisdom knowing our limits end.

Humans are interesting! And surely need salvation.

@Chungamu