Human Nature Through the Ages

The Epic of Gilgamesh, despite being thousands of years old holds lessons about human nature that stay true to this day. I believe the fact that the text is so old makes the lessons all the more relevant, simply because they show us how much we really haven’t changed throughout the ages. Gilgamesh’s original arrogance was left unchecked until he met his somewhat equal, Enkidu. This has repeated itself throughout history, a recent example being the cold war. The arrogant U.S.S.R was growing by leaps and bounds gobbling up countries, and developing military technologies. It wouldn’t be until J.F.K came along with his space program that the U.S would put up a stand against the U.S.S.R. The bond that the two shared grew by leaps and bounds as they pushed one another to extremes; and although the two countries never shared friendship, they both helped one another out. During the cold war thousands of jobs were created in military technologies, and once the Soviet Union fell, the U.S economy dropped into a small recession. Human nature, however complex it might seem, has its roots imbedded in the simplest of our primal instincts. The need to seek out friendship is one thing that only humans (and perhaps high order primates) have, that no other species on Earth shares with us.