On Page 19 of her book, The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand writes: "But whatever the conditions, there is no alternative in a plant's function: it acts automatically to further its life, it cannot act for its own destruction."
I believe Rand in correct here, and all animals too, just below human beings, cannot act for their own destruction.
But humans have the consciousness of angels in the bodies of beasts. Our very existence is pure contradiction. Once awake and sensing how we can be hurt, and how we can hurt others--thanks Jordan Peterson for this insight--we are not dangerous. We can war against other tribes, we can beat our spouses, we can serve in our tyrannical government's secret police, we can commit murder, even genocide.
We can act for our own destruction because we have free will, while animals and plants and rocks have very little of it, so they are in effect living robots, and they are hardwired not to work for their own destruction.
Humans are half-angels, misfits and freaks of nature. We feel alone, abandoned by God and by nature. When we become bitter and resentful, and blame nature or God for our suffering, and we do suffer Peterson notes, then we seek to wipe out everything in revenge. At that point we work for our own destruction. Only love, a moral code, faith and the science of maverizing can nudge any youngster to disavow any movement to work to end human life, to revolt and burn down the world. Maybe we will survive another 100 years.
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