You know, humans have language and it is one of the principal things separating us from primates. It is a very mixed blessing. It provides us with an infinity of opinions and beliefs that have a small and insignificant relation to the material world and to the social world. Language gives us the feeling that we understand when we do not. Language gives us the feeling that we know causal relationships without the least bit of checking. If we utter these opinions, beliefs, and pseudo knowledge, our utterance becomes associated with our self-concept and within consensual groups becomes associated with our individual and group identity. Groups and people that differ are a threat to each other and therefore consider each other evil. As outsiders, whom we do not know or understand, we can depersonalize them and feel no guilt for anathematizing them and attacking them.

These human characteristics make even bright humans stupid and stupid humans even more stupid. Unfortunately, there is no SUPERIOR OVERSEER to correct us or guide us to a more rational approach to understanding our fallacies and our interpersonal and inter-group misunderstandings and hostilities. Our leaders are just ‘us humans’ too. Our religions are just placebos manufactured using these same human fallibilities. Giving their religions the attribute of originating from a god makes conflicts among humans over dogma disagreements even more likely to have the potential to incite inter-group animosity and violence. Therefore, political or religious leaders cannot be looked to as the needed SUPERIOR OVERSEER. We are left to our own devices like the children in "Lord of the Flies".

If we can redefine our species as technologically superior to primates but linguistically and culturally inferior to primates, perhaps we can set aside our arrogance and attempt to search for a way to tame this runaway defect of ours and institute procedures to reform, restructure, our dangerously violent linguistic and cultural proclivities. We cannot look to the rule of law for such a solution because it is unwittingly the worst offender. Worst if only because we erroneously and universally have invested (as we have done with religion) law with the authority to be that SUPERIOR OVERSEER whilst the law itself is both a product of and perpetuates the very human fallibilities it is claiming to overcome.

What is needed, first, is a realistic acceptance of this imperfect human condition of ours. We must understand and accept that we are fatally flawed with respect to those human characteristics we laud with such devotion: language and culture. Next, we need a willingness simultaneously to be empathic and persistent in urging a non-judgmental stance toward our commonly flawed fellow humans and yet to do so with the determination to work in whatever small way we can to help our fellow human beings to understand and accept this as our common flawed human condition.

Extolling these, our common fallibilities! Such is the fatal irony of the human condition.

Love, ed

PS pass it on if you so wish.