Reply To: I nominate this for your next series

[Candace]

Hi Ashvin,

I know you enjoy discussing the freegold and money topics, but I actually enjoyed your discussions of psychology more…

I nominate the question below as a topic for your consideration.

@ alfbell
“No system will ever be successful until the human mind, and the spiritual being that utilized it, have been isolated and fully understood. Psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, et al. have failed in this area as well. Very too bad because THIS is the key to man’s future survival.

Find the source of evil and destructive intentions; the need to dominate; the need to destroy what another creates; man’s inhumanity to man; man’s illogic; man’s low level of morality; man’s “animalistic” tendencies; man’s inability to predict consequences; etc. and you will save mankind.”

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So if human kind is dependent on figuring out the mysteries of our souls and then acting rationally on our understanding, we are in a lot of trouble.  I think we’ve been working on that longer than we’ve been hunting and gathering or farming combined.

Getting us all to agree to a rational response to our human predicament seems out of reach too.  If we agreed that human beings will never be consistently rational, that as individuals and groups we act at times on the better and worse angels of our nature could we even agree on a “ring-fencing” technique to keep us from killing off our habitat?  For instance, can we even get all humans to agree to not use or develop things that create radioactive waste?  As Nicloe Foss and others point out, we have to be responsible for and maintain infrastructure that will keep that toxic waste from contaminating huge areas, and yet we usually can’t keep anything going for extended periods of time.

What I’m trying to figure out is if we all fail to be our best selves at least some of the time, are there any structures we can impose on ourselves that will at least keep us from causing massive damage to ourselves and the planet?