Greed and self interest are definitely prime motivators in human affairs. One very disturbing thing I learned from the Facebook whistle blower, is how their vast data revealed hate as a prime lure to more activity - which is dollars for Facebook. But the underlying fact of how attracted to hate itself we humans are, was very disturbing to learn. If it had been set up as a scientific psych experiment it probably wouldn’t have passed an ethics review. But we got the information somewhat serendipitously. Humans are attracted to hate. We have to admit it, in our quest to try to defang it.
Certain humans with innate powers of manipulation like Trump and Hitler, know this intuitively and can channel it for greed and self interest. So it comes full circle. But the pawns are nonetheless lured by hate itself.
Good point. I'm a believer in the concept that human nature is fairly universal. By which I mean that it can happen here. We aren't somehow magically special and immune from things like fascism or other brands of authoritarianism. Of course, it doesn't seem so profound of a statement as it did 20 years ago.
I sometimes wonder if we might not be stuck with a best course of just channeling that hate. Hate intolerance. Hate authoritarianism. Hate grifters. Hate those that profit off of our pain. Etc., etc.
Not what I'd call optimal, but in my darker moments I'm not sure humans are capable of being enlightened beings en masse.
Greed and self interest are definitely prime motivators in human affairs. One very disturbing thing I learned from the Facebook whistle blower, is how their vast data revealed hate as a prime lure to more activity - which is dollars for Facebook. But the underlying fact of how attracted to hate itself we humans are, was very disturbing to learn. If it had been set up as a scientific psych experiment it probably wouldn’t have passed an ethics review. But we got the information somewhat serendipitously. Humans are attracted to hate. We have to admit it, in our quest to try to defang it.
Certain humans with innate powers of manipulation like Trump and Hitler, know this intuitively and can channel it for greed and self interest. So it comes full circle. But the pawns are nonetheless lured by hate itself.
Good point. I'm a believer in the concept that human nature is fairly universal. By which I mean that it can happen here. We aren't somehow magically special and immune from things like fascism or other brands of authoritarianism. Of course, it doesn't seem so profound of a statement as it did 20 years ago.
I sometimes wonder if we might not be stuck with a best course of just channeling that hate. Hate intolerance. Hate authoritarianism. Hate grifters. Hate those that profit off of our pain. Etc., etc.
Not what I'd call optimal, but in my darker moments I'm not sure humans are capable of being enlightened beings en masse.