Nest

by Terry Goodkind

  That was too inclusive to make any sense to her. “So what are the connections you’re talking about?”

  “There are long eras when good is on the ascendancy, times of enlightenment when knowledge is expanding and lives are getting better. Then there are the opposite kind of times, when hard-won enlightenment fades as forces gather to bring darkness in around mankind. Those times are grim and life is harsh.

  “There is great power behind the movement of these historical periods, so they endure for thousands of years.”

  “So that’s what your new book is about?” Kate asked. “The history of mankind going through these long periods of good and bad times?”

  “No,” Jack said. “It’s about the hidden force behind that pendulum, what drives it, what makes it tick.”

  Kate didn’t follow what he meant. “So, the book is going to be about … what?”

  When Jack finished a shrimp, he waved the tail for emphasis. “Basically, it’s the story of how the mechanism of murder drives historical trends.”

  “So it’s a history book? The history of murderers and the part they played in the world during different times?”

  “Not exactly. You’re thinking in terms of result, while I’m talking about causation.” He frowned up at the ceiling as he appeared to consider where to begin.

  “It’s not about the people who murder,” he finally said, “but about why they murder.”

  “My brother used to call those kinds of people the devil.”

  “There is no devil,” Jack said. “We are the devil. The devil is us.”

  Kate paused. “What are you talking about?”

  “What do a serial killer; a man who murders his children and wife because he finds responsibilities intolerable; an armed robber who shoots a store clerk; a nurse who murders elderly patients; a dictator who orders tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or millions of people to be executed; a guy who shoots his neighbor over a boundary dispute; a gang member who shoots a member of another race for an initiation; government officials who cause countless deaths because they want to protect a pharmaceutical industry; people who are making a product that they know is resulting in deaths; a terrorist who opens up with a machine gun, slaughtering women and children; a man who kills another man in a bar fight; a motorist who in a rage shoots a woman for cutting him off; a wife who poisons her husband with antifreeze for his life-insurance money; and a twelve-year-old girl on social media encouraging another girl to kill herself … all have in common?”

  “Jeez,” Kate said, staring at him, transfixed, fork in hand. “I guess they all involve people being killed, but the causes of those killings are wildly different.”

  “It only seems that way. In order to understand why, first you need to understand that humans—Homo sapiens—have virtually identical DNA. A small group of chimps has more genetic diversity than all the billions of people alive today.”

  Kate frowned as she put one of the throw pillows behind her back for support. “How can that be?”

  “It came about because of several pivotal periods in our history, history that can be traced back through both our DNA and our mitochondrial DNA.”

  Kate swallowed a bite of pot sticker as she held up a finger to stop him. “What’s mitochondrial DNA?”

  “Prehistoric organelles within all our cells. The cell provides a protective environment for them. Mitochondria create ATP—molecular energy—at a cellular level, so the relationship is symbiotic. Without them, we couldn’t have developed into who and what we are today. Chinese philosophy has always called this life force ‘chi,’ but it’s simply a chemical reaction that provides energy to cells.

  “Over hundreds of thousands of years, those organelles lost much of their own DNA material because living within the protection of the host cell it was no longer needed. While our cells have something like twenty to twenty-five thousand DNA gene pairs, mitochondrial DNA contains only thirty-seven genes.

  “Only the mother’s mitochondrial DNA can be passed down to her offspring, so through it we can trace the female side of humans back through history.”

  “Okay,” Kate said, trying to be patient, “what does that have to do with lack of genetic diversity?”

  “All of our mitochondrial DNA—the female side of our ancestors—can be traced back through mutation rates to roughly about two hundred thousand years ago, to the time of the skeletal remains of a female pre-human known as Lucy. She—or those like her—passed on their mitochondrial DNA to all of us. They were the female component of our ancestors.

  “That mitochondrial DNA evidence shows that there have been several critical times in our history when the ancestors of humans nearly became extinct.

  “For example, roughly seventy thousand years ago, the eruption of Toba, on Sumatra in Indonesia, put nearly three thousand times as much ash into the atmosphere as Mount Saint Helens. It dimmed the sun for six years, leading to the complete disruption of the environment and all living species.

  “It’s estimated that the pre-human population of the world fell to perhaps no more than two thousand individuals. Inbreeding of this small population narrowed genetic diversity.

  “Then, about sixty thousand years ago, a male, a product of this natural selection of survival of the fittest, gave this relatively stable pre-human female DNA a mutation of the Y chromosome that started the rapid cascade of human evolution.

  “Somewhere between twenty and forty thousand years ago, it’s believed that this human population fell to as few as twelve hundred individuals. But these were now human individuals. They were like us.”

  “Wow,” Kate said, trying to imagine such a world, “so at one time there were hardly more than a thousand people?”

  Jack flourished a shrimp for emphasis. “Yes, but that dramatically overstates the reality of the situation. It was actually much more dire than it sounds. Remember, out of that total were those too young and too old to breed. With such small total populations, there may have been no more than forty breeding pairs—for the entire human race.

  “We were an endangered species on the brink of extinction.

  “But even that overstates the grim reality. It wasn’t like what we think of today, where a couple comes together for whatever reason, and there were forty pairs of people, forty couples reproducing. That’s not the way it would have been.

  “This would have been a very hostile world of primitive groups struggling for survival, much like a wolf pack. In such a near-extinction period, where only the most cunning, the most brutal survived, the dominant male would have controlled most of the females for breeding rights. It is only those few males, or perhaps even one, who was the father of all future people.”

  “So how does this handful of males, or even a single male, become dominant?” Kate asked. “What did they do to win the females?”

  “Now you’ve reached the central connection to everything.

  “You see, to compete for scarce resources, and to compete for breeding rights, males benefited by killing off their competition—both to maintain breeding dominance and as a source of food. There was no benefit to allowing other males to exist to threaten what meager food was available, or to vie for the small number of breeding-age females. Killing also produced a food source for the dominant male and his breeding females so that they would live to produce his offspring.

  “Killing became an essential component of the genetic makeup.

  “So, these few males with a genetic mutation for murder had a survival advantage. They murdered their competition. Whatever the total population might have been, most would have been females, with these few males exerting their breeding rights.

  “For those few males, killing was the prime means of survival. It was in fact their key survival advantage. Their dominance through murder took them to the top of the food chain. They passed that genetic trait on to their offspring.

  “Those few offspring interbred, helping to hardwire that genetic makeup into our DNA, re
sulting in the lack of genetic diversity we see today.

  “It is often said that the people alive today are the descendants of this single mitochondrial Eve, or more likely a very small number of these inbred pre-human females at the time of a population bottleneck, with the unique mutation of DNA introduced by one of those dominant males that bred with her. Their descendants started the rapid cascade of human evolution and population growth that came of their genetically superior offspring.

  “We are all descendants of this primitive king, this primitive killer. He was father to all of us.

  “In other words, we are all the children of these same few breeding pairs, this homogeneous ancestral population, these same few dominant killers. Lucy’s mitochondrial DNA, our first mother, combined with the Y chromosome of that dominant male, our first father, made us who we are today.

  “We all—white, black, Asian, whatever—are descendants of that handful of human ancestors. We all carry the same basic structure of their DNA. We are all them.

  “And murder is baked into our DNA.”

  CHAPTER

  FORTY-FIVE

  Kate wiped a hand across her face, her meal momentarily forgotten.

  “If our genetic diversity is so narrow, and this gene for murder is carried in all of our DNA, then why are there so many good people? Why are there people who volunteer to help others, become doctors, befriend a lonely person online, let a car merge in front of them without going all homicidal, are happy for others, help a stranger who is hurt, help a lost person, love their friends—find and help someone like me the way you did—and countless other benevolent acts?”

  Jack laid one arm along the top of the couch as he rested the ankle of one leg on his other knee. “That’s the other side of the human equation that came from the development of a rational brain and lifted us up from the murderous muck.

  “All of those good qualities grew out of the same survival mechanism. Therein lies the source of our eternal struggle between light and dark.

  “Not every wolf is the leader of the pack. Some help rear the pups, some help hunt, some help protect the pack’s territory. Not everyone was as strong or cunning as the dominant alpha males and females, so while they didn’t have mating privileges until later when the population grew, they developed other survival mechanisms.”

  “Like running faster?”

  “Sure. But you couldn’t always run. People learned that they could survive and have better lives if they formed alliances, if they worked together rather than always trying to kill each other off.

  “An entire village couldn’t always run away and hide. So, if you know that potentially dangerous males are jealous of the food you have—say your tribe just took down some large game and had a windfall of meat—you invite them to share it with you to defuse their murderous intentions. In a fight they might take it all, so why not share some of it in order to avoid a fight?

  “It’s the same with acts of kindness. These traits proved to be successful survival mechanisms—defenses—to prevent being murdered in the event that you aren’t strong enough to kill the other guy. Since these tactics were successful, they were passed on to offspring, helping man’s rational mind to develop.

  “Don’t forget, a dominant male isn’t going to go around killing every single person he can find. It’s to the advantage of those less strong to be nonthreatening or helpful.

  “But murder was now hardwired into humans, so even if you weren’t strong enough to vie for dominance directly, you could develop cunning ways to kill stronger competitors for scarce resources. You made spears, knives, and clubs. Rather than sheer brawn, you used your brains to help you survive and kill if necessary. You formed alliances to kill others.

  “When necessary you were kind and generous to placate a potential enemy, or simply in the hope that he would leave you alone, like when you’re kind to a belligerent coworker in an attempt to inoculate yourself from being stabbed in the back. Stabbing a coworker in the back is a metaphor derived from the inner recognition of the ever-present potential for murder.

  “All of this became the struggle that has been going on throughout our history. Murderers turn to murder to get what they want, but if they can get what they want without putting themselves at risk of injury, then that becomes a viable alternative. In other words, they learn to get what they need to live without always turning to murder.

  “It’s in the best interest of the weaker to offer kindness or booty to dominant killers as a way to survive. Any number of nations throughout history paid tribute to keep murderous invaders at bay. Not ideal or fair, but it avoids bloodshed.

  “So, placation becomes part of that eternal tension between predator and prey. For crying out loud, there are cities right now, faced with withering crime, that are actually paying criminals they let out of prison not to kill people. This is civilization?

  “Turning a blind eye is another way people try to get by in the face of evil, letting evil get away with a little in the hope that they won’t become more violent. Victimhood becomes a survival strategy, as in ‘Take what you want, just don’t hurt me.’ In this way, weakness and placation become a workable countermeasure to murder, so that becomes part of our nature.

  “These tactics can’t eliminate evil, but simply keep it at bay, so the fundamental genetic trait remains in our DNA. That leaves both good and evil always at odds. Sometimes those tactics work better and civilization flourishes, sometimes it only emboldens evil and you have wars and dark ages.”

  Kate couldn’t help thinking of the way Jack said that Rita tried to counter the darkness in the world with sunshine. She was doing what Jack described. And she had still been murdered. Through the long perspective of history, Jack already saw the whole depth of her weakness and vulnerability. It must have torn him up inside to see the history of mankind played out with that one fragile woman facing a world of predators.

  It was the same way with all the people he tried to help who instead turned a blind eye to it all. But in their case, it turned out not to be a viable survival mechanism.

  “Jealousy and hate are important ancillary components to the murder gene in our DNA,” Jack added as he ate a forkful of vegetables from a container.

  “They are?” Kate picked up an egg roll. “What worthwhile purpose could jealousy and hate serve?”

  “The emotion that manifests itself because of hunger is ‘want.’ Hunger, after all, is potentially a life-threatening event. ‘Want’ curdles into ‘jealousy’ that others have food and you don’t. You are hungry. They are not. Jealousy stokes the drive to kill to get what you need. Your genetic makeup has already programmed you to turn to murder to survive. Jealousy therefore binds itself to the act of murder.

  “Another male has breeding females and you don’t. You hate him for having breeding females. That hate easily supports your internal justification for murder. It reinforces and gives support to your decision to kill the other male to get the females he has. Look at how common it is for men to fight over women and ultimately kill over them. A woman who rejects a man for another becomes an object of jealousy. Jealousy puts her in mortal danger.”

  “Most people usually get a divorce,” Kate objected. “It may be bitter, but it rarely results in murder.”

  “No, like I said, we also have that reasoning side that is responsible for all the achievements of civilization. But as mankind developed, brutality was self-perpetuating. Killing was a tried-and-true way for the most brutal to have food and breeding rights. The killers were the ones who survived to breed and in that way were able to produce offspring, so that trait of brutality was passed on to successive generations. Brutality became part of our genetic fabric.”

  “So that’s what made it possible for you to kill those two men?” Kate asked in direct challenge.

  “Absolutely. It’s the reality we sometimes face: kill or be killed. We all carry that latent potential. You carry it as well. That potential is not merely to take what others have, but
also to kill in order to defend yourself or your loved ones.

  “But we are also reasoning creatures. Reason helped us figure out the world around us and that, too, helped us survive. So we developed competing survival mechanisms. Our intellect usually overrides that urge for murder because it provides less dangerous solutions to getting what we need.

  “Even so, we all still have that hardwired DNA for killing.

  “Because those inner forces of light on one side and darkness on the other are balanced on a razor’s edge, it creates the back-and-forth of ages of enlightenment and dark ages in arcs of thousands of years. An age of reason allows mankind to make great advances that better our conditions. But when the evil side is allowed to establish nests among civilized men and grow unopposed, it finally becomes so strong, so widespread, that savagery once again ascends, bringing on another dark age.

  “That struggle is the history of mankind, the history of us. From bad times to good times and back to bad times again.”

  Kate shot him a skeptical look. “But those dark ages are past history. We’ve mostly outgrown that savage side of our nature.”

  “You think we’re so civilized now? So much more highly developed, now? Tell me, what are most video games?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “What?”

  “Practice at killing people. From first-person shooter to war on an interplanetary scale, they are all ways to rehearse killing. Why are such games so successful? Because they feed mankind’s inborn genetic drive to kill. If not, why else would people enjoy practice at killing?”

  “But that’s just the people who play those games,” Kate objected, feeling helpless against the tide rising in around her. “It’s not everyone. Just a certain segment of people.”

  “What is the central theme of books, movies, TV? Murder. Murder is central to everything we do because murder is part of our genetic makeup. In societies that don’t have those kinds of entertainment, what do they do? They live by a more primitive and intimate association with murder. There are many places where women are stoned to death for ‘crimes’ like adultery.”