after having this article recommended to me, i was unsure how to respond. my first impression was "yeah...so?" much of what he writes is patently obvious; it takes little research and thought to arrive at these conclusions. but then i remember that most people do little of either, or else we wouldn't be where we find ourselves now. As broadbent points out, the right relies on simple, vacuous statements rather than careful arguments or facts, and yet with these they managed to reverse much of a 1/2 century of social progress.

arguments aside, one only has to lift their eyes from their own selfish concerns to have the truth confirmed. I came to adulthood at the beginning of this process and so i knew what it was like at the pinnacle and see how far things have declined. how far we, as a civilisation, have allowed others to reduce us.

I'm a thoughtful person. i spent ten years in university just for the hell of it, simply because i wanted to know. i spend hours a day reading and researching. i've written four novels. i've had 8 careers. i've been around almost 1/2 a century myself. i like to think i'm pretty well placed to look, examine, think, and make my own decisions and assertions based on much more than what sounds good or what i was taught by my parents and society.

after all this i've come to the following conclusions regarding human nature:

• everyone is afraid, more or less.
• passivity is the default because it's easiest and safest.
• most people are motivated - and greatly limited - by shame.
• people act more or less in what they see as their own interest.
• power and wealth make people believe in their own deservedness and the essential failings of others.
• the more people have, the more they want.
• the more rigid the paradigm the more it becomes part of a person's identity and the more vigorously they will defend it.
• throughout history the wealthy and powerful have fed upon, destroyed, used, and blamed the poor. the last 100 years is an enormous exception, and in many ways pits philosophy, an ideal, against human nature.
• power operates in it's own self-interest.
• the decline in political participation is due to primarily to the fact that we have become distracted, spoiled, and self-absorbed. People are motivated to vote when they have been through war, plague, or famine.

if this seems cynical, it isn't meant to be. there is a reason why all religions teach how we must guard against our instinctive natures, because they are not the best parts of ourselves. our ideals and our minds allow us to move beyond our primitive basics. we are learning how much human behaviour is genetic, and how much of our natures have arisen in prehistorical, evolutionary contexts. Mind was the last to evolve in the animal homo sapiens.

how all this relates to the essay in question is that those of us who believe in dignity for all persons, help for the unfortunate, and compassion for the weak and dispossessed are fighting against our very natures as human beings. and ultimately why we see the social degradation that has come about in the last 30 years. if we were naturally compassionate, caring, and understanding creatures history would look very different. so would the present. it is our ideals only that have elevated us above the level of barbarism, and we have allowed their corruption by those with a very narrow self interest.