FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What is FIX THE WORLD?

Established in Sydney, Australia, in 1983, FIX THE WORLD is a global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to transforming the human race by addressing the root cause of all human conflict and suffering: the human condition. FIX THE WORLD in particular promotes Australian biologist and author Jeremy Griffith’s breakthrough biological explanation of the human condition, which reveals how the clash between our instincts and intellect led to our species’ angry, egocentric and alienated behaviour. This understanding has been described by Professor Harry Prosen, a past President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, as the “holy grail of insight” required for the psychological rehabilitation of humanity. Read more in FIX THE WORLD FAQ 3.1.

2. Who is Jeremy Griffith?

Jeremy Griffith is an Australian biologist who has dedicated his life to bringing scientific understanding to the dilemma of ‘good-and-evil’-conflicted human condition. Raised on a sheep station in rural New South Wales, he was educated at Geelong Grammar School, conducted the most thorough investigation into the fate of the Tasmanian Tiger, and later completed a Bachelor of Science in zoology at the University of Sydney. In 1983, Griffith established a non-profit organisation dedicated to the study and amelioration of the human condition, now called FIX THE WORLD. He is the author of over 20 books, including FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, which presents his comprehensive — and world-transforming-and-saving — account of human behaviour. Read more in FIX THE WORLD FAQ 2.1.

3. What is biologist Jeremy Griffith’s ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition?

In his ‘Instinct vs Intellect’ explanation of the human condition, biologist Jeremy Griffith — the founder of FIX THE WORLD — explains that the human condition emerged some two million years ago when our newly conscious intellect came into conflict with our older, instinctive drives. Our intellect needs to question and experiment, whereas instincts, shaped by countless generations of natural selection, are rigid strategies that resist such experimentation. This resistance left the intellect feeling unfairly criticized, which in turn produced guilt, insecurity and, ultimately, the defensive behaviours of anger, ego and alienation. Griffith asserts that by understanding this clash, those insecure behaviours are obsoleted, providing a pathway to the resolution of conflict and suffering in our lives and thus the world. Read more in FIX THE WORLD FAQ 1.3.

4. What scientific support does Jeremy Griffith’s explanation of the human condition have?

Despite the reluctance many have to discussion of the human condition, biologist Jeremy Griffith’s ‘Instinct vs Intellect’ explanation of it — which is advanced through FIX THE WORLD — has been endorsed by an array of renowned scientists such as Professor Harry Prosen (a past President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association), Professor Stuart Hurlbert (a noted ecologist from San Diego State University), Professor Alejo Vidal-Quadras (a nuclear physicist and former Vice-President of the European Parliament), Professor Charles Birch (a Templeton prize-winning biologist) and Professor David Chivers (a past President of the Primate Society of Great Britain). Read more in FIX THE WORLD FAQ 1.7.

5. What subjects are covered in biologist Jeremy Griffith’s main book, FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition?

In FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith presents his comprehensive biological explanation of the human condition—the long-standing paradox of why humans are capable of extraordinary love, compassion and cooperation, yet also prone to anger, conflict and destructive behaviour. Griffith argues that this breakthrough understanding is the missing insight humanity has needed to fully understand itself and, ultimately, achieve its psychological rehabilitation.

Building on this explanation, FREEDOM addresses many of humanity’s most profound and enduring questions, arguing that once the human condition is understood, it becomes possible to make sense of human behaviour, psychology, morality, meaning, consciousness and the course of human history.

The book addresses topics including:

The real meaning of the ‘human condition’.
The meaning and purpose of existence.
The biological basis of love, cooperation and our moral instincts.
How and when consciousness emerged in humans.
The relationship between our instincts and intellect and how a conflict between the two systems gave rise to the development of the defensive behaviours of anger, egocentricity, alienation.
The impact of our species’ search for self-understanding on the relationship between men and women, human history, culture, religion and politics.
How understanding and resolving the human condition provides the pathway to personal and societal transformation.

In essence, FREEDOM presents a biological explanation of the human condition that unifies insights from biology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy and history, providing what Griffith argues is the essential understanding needed to free the human race from its underlying psychological conflict and enable its full rehabilitation. Read more in FIX THE WORLD FAQ 1.12.

6. What, according to Jeremy Griffith, is the meaning of life?

Jeremy Griffith describes the “Integrative Meaning of life” as the overarching direction of existence – the progressive ordering of matter into ever more complex and stable forms that results from the law of physics called negative entropy. Out the universe, a chaotic cosmos continues to organise itself into stars, planets and galaxies. And here on Earth, atoms combine into molecules, then organisms, and eventually complex societies. In this view, life unfolds as a long movement toward greater organisation and cooperation. He argues this idea has historically been too confronting to acknowledge because our selfish and divisive human behaviour seemingly defies this integrative trend. To cope with the resulting sense of condemnation, he explains that humans deified this integrative process as ‘God’, making it something separate and superior to us, not connected to us in an earthly, practical way. However, once humans’ selfish and divisive behaviour is explained, understood and defended through Griffith’s all-redeeming, reconciling and rehabilitating, competition-selfishness-and-aggression-ending explanation of the human condition, the concept of ‘God’ can, in this view, be demystified and recognised as the natural integrative direction of life and the universe. Read more in FIX THE WORLD FAQ 5.3.

7. How does Jeremy Griffith’s explanation of the human condition differ from the theories of Freud or Jung?

Jeremy Griffith acknowledges the pioneering contributions of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung in recognising the importance of the unconscious mind and humanity’s underlying psychological conflict. However, he argues that neither identified the true source of that conflict.

Freud believed our instinctive self was driven by primitive selfish and aggressive impulses that the conscious mind had to control. In contrast, Griffith argues that our instincts are fundamentally loving, cooperative and moral, and that humanity’s upset behaviour arose not from savage instincts but from a clash between our instinctive orientations and our emerging conscious intellect.

Similarly, while Jung recognised the existence of a collective unconscious and the tension between instinct and consciousness, Griffith argues that he did not explain why that conflict arose or what the collective unconscious fundamentally represents.

According to Griffith, the human condition is the result of our conscious mind’s historic conflict with and repression of our cooperative, selfless and loving instincts. He maintains that this explanation provides the redeeming, reconciling and rehabilitating understanding that Freud and Jung were ultimately searching for—the insight needed for humanity’s psychological rehabilitation. Read more in FIX THE WORLD FAQ 1.47.