I Wonder

This one is a bit more pondering than anything. Questioning features of human nature which are all too common.

Most notably, I question why so many humans are prone to hate and greed.

I have explored some of this before in articles where I explain that hate, anger and fear are addictions. I explore more of it in one of the first chapters of the book I am writing when I look at indoctrination.

Still, that understanding is not enough. Of course, knowledge will never be enough to defeat emotions which are base, bestial and completely unreasoning. None of this is new to human nature, either. One look through history at segregation, the mass murder of black people, slavery, crusades, witch hunts, wars, genocide of native Americans, many other genocides in history tells us that this behavior is part and parcel of the worst of human nature.

Still, we live in an age of information. Where anything you want to know about is easily found. For some, their time is limited by the necessity of working long hours, sometimes multiple jobs, raising children, etc. I empathize with them. One would expect the older, retired people with more time on their hands to do the research and lend more truth to our discussions.

Yet the elderly are the ones most likely to be ruled by hatred, fear, greed and prejudice. The real tragedy is how elderly people are the ones most likely to claim some past of community, unity and reliance on one another, who belonged to unions, some marched against wars in Korea and Vietnam, who…