We are very happy to share with you the Editorial of our upcoming issue. the magazine will be on press next Monday, so it should arrive near you early June!

EDITORIAL

The laws of nature rely on altruism to function; an unselfish concern for the welfare of others, exemplified in zoology as the behavior of an animal that benefits another at its own expense. On the contrary our ‘true human nature’ is egotism; concern only for our own interests and feelings. The laws of human nature are to receive, to satisfy the self, to take more than is needed regardless of its material or emotional value.

Giving and receiving, as preached in many religions are the basis of our existence. Although our human nature and the notions of society pertain to the idea that even kind, giving and selfless acts are done for the most part with the intention of self-satisfaction.

Humankind has successfully devised methods to control its true nature and instead project or conform to a socially accepted or tolerated version of our inner-selves. Exceptions are found in mental illness or disability, where the abstraction of concealing ones true nature can be beyond comprehension, leaving the individual free to behave and react without mask, despite social or lawful expectations.

When we referenced Ira Levin’s novels’ The Stepford wives and Rosemary’s baby as inspiration for this issue, the idea of a ‘hidden’ true nature or an innerself not recognised by the protagonist was glaringly obvious. In both stories the husband, the trusted and beloved other half is misguided by the idealization of a better life with an infallible partner or successful career, resulting in robot wives, murder and conceiving the devils child; both are extreme and fantastical examples of the magnitude of our ‘true’ selves.

Nevertheless, why is it when we first meet someone, we can become blinded by a passionate idea of what our ‘perfect’ other half may be? Perhaps we all think of ourselves as explored in Plato’s symposium, only complete with half of another.

…Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish…

True human nature is significantly influenced by the need for companionship, to procreate and the fear of death. The latter asserts a powerful authority over partnership and procreation. Our innate fear of death compels us to seek love and procreate, leaving behind a trace of ourselves, and giving us something of our own…

‘To have and to hold’, a contract, ownership, the right to shed our masks and assert our inner nature on the other; is it the idea of ownership which allows our true nature to surface within the confines of a marriage, partnership or parental relationships?

Human nature is complex, built from our innate human nature, but combined with individual experience and environment, nature and nurture, with free will to give, love, advance, create, receive, destroy, control and hate. The derivative of our instinct to procreate is sex, and behind this is the concept of giving to receive: satisfying the self, the other, and receiving to receive in the case of procreation. The notion of sex and sexuality in our society and others before us has had a profound impact on our human nature and our behavior towards the opposite sex, the same sex and ourselves. We now live in a society where possibilities are endless and boundaries are expanding for both sexes. Marriage is no longer proof of your wealth and success and procreation no longer the only option; reproduction not as half of a partnership but alone as a whole in one’s own image-egotism or true human nature: can we really separate the two?