Re: Number 4

Humanity has many different traits that are brought out based upon what environment we are living under. Our negative traits do not inherently outweigh our positive traits to the extent that a better system that we currently live under is totally impossible. That is simply a form of misanthropy and defeatism, not realism.

You call it defeatism, I call it realism. Which of us is right? The science is on my side, I'm afraid. Human beings, when left to their own devices, are self-centered and animalistic. It's just a natural fact; it's in our genes. Someone in a program I was watching on TV last night, in a program about the hippie movement in fact, made the point perfectly. He said if we were capable of living in peace and brotherhood on our own, we would've been doing it already for thousands of years. Almost all attempts at such idealized communities invariably collapse due to human shortcomings. The free love movement imploded because human beings are jealous lovers. They do not like to share. The drug subculture of the Haight-Ashbury was destroyed by greedy drug dealers, gangsters and pimps who took advantage of the young people moving out there on their own. The best we're ever gonna get is temporary. Carnivals and festivals do well as kind of temporary utopias, but few people would want to live in that atmosphere permanently unless they're getting paid for it, like Disneyland employees.

While it's true that human beings are capable of selfishness, greed, ruthless competiveness, rampant mistrust of their fellow human, and materialism, we are also capable of great compassion, cooperation, love for our fellow human, charitable behavior, and a strong desire to benefit our entire species. Which traits are ascendant at any given time depend upon what our environment--i.e., our socio-economic system--demands of us and encourage.

Just because we're capable of those things doesn't imply that these are inherent qualities to us and that they'll triumph in the end. There must be some underlying motivation to make people behave, whether it's love for their spouse and children, state enforcement, monetary compensation or whatever. Usually it's a combination of these. What is the American dream? Living in a world were everyone is cared for, has access to health care, etc.? Obviously not. People want to strike it rich somehow. Lotteries are popular because they rely on the fact that humans are greedy. They want to live like kings and they want to do it now, without having to time time and energy into it.

Given how our current system operates, it's no wonder that negative behavior patterns such as selfishness, greed, and materialism come to the fore in people so often. Despite this fact, positive behavior is evident in many human beings, and if even a few people can aspire to a better world, than so can all humanity make it happen in the future.

It doesn't matter what kind of system you have. Like I said, the hippie communes stressed the values you're talking about and far too many of them either turned into cults or self-destructed. It's our nature, and nothing we do--leastwise reducing gov't interference in our lives--is going to overturn millions of years of evolutionary programming. It's just not gonna happen. The best we can hope for is a balanced approach, which more or less what we have. Is it perfect? Hell, no, not even close. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. I'm much more inclined towards the European style of democratic socialism than I am to what we currently have, but they have problems too. Still, I do believe victimless crimes are ridiculous and should be done away with. People--well, adults--should have the right to harm themselves or take risks (with drugs, unprotected sex, mountain climbing, not wearing seat belts, whatever) if that's their prerogative. And gov't should be there to regulate businesses because they are more powerful than individuals alone and prone to exploit individuals for profit.