Kort Explores conundrums of the human condition

One of the hallmarks of modern industrial civilization has been its phenomenal ability to make what was once the exclusive province of the rich and privileged available to the general population. Statistically this has been a good thing. Life expectancies have increased, and quality of life has improved.

I've had some trouble with my car recently, and it continued long enough to provide a number of unsought insights into the role of expectations in perceptions and reactions to failures.

Humanity has long been obsessed with establishing man's significance in the universe.

In spite of a complete absence of supporting evidence, man has at times managed to convinced himself that the continued functioning of cosmic forces far beyond his understanding let alone control, were directly dependent on his will and participation. At various times man has wanted to believe that the weather, the rising of the sun in the morning, and the regular cycle of seasons, were all dependent on the intervention of humans endowed with special powers and/or knowledge.

I wrote the following for a "5 Minute Lightning Talk" at the Oregon Mensa RG. I wrote a longer exploration of this topic for the Aug/Sept 1997 Port of Call.

It's become popular to condemn greed and laziness as flaws in the human character, but I submit that the problem is actually one of competence at being greedy and lazy. The key is the difference between the superficial and profound forms of these very human characteristics.

Humanity is the only species that is so driven to imagine a higher purpose for our lives, that we deprive ourselves of life's primary reward for living well. It has become a common mantra that there is more to life than the pursuit of happiness. In our obsession with finding purpose in our imagined unnatural world, we've become obsessed with guilt over the happiness that can be found in the natural world.

Good and evil don't exist in an absolute form. Events are inherently neutral. Only the effects of events can appear good or evil, and then only as a function of the perception and perspective of the viewer.

Popular culture takes a great deal of pride in how far we've come from our roots in the primitive world. And the greater the distance from that primitive world we believe we've come, the higher we can believe we've elevated our current civilization, and the greater our pride of accomplishment.

Greed and laziness have long been popularly perceived as flaws in the human character. While greed and laziness can express themselves independently, they are in many ways intertwined in the human psyche.

The average citizen in the western world today enjoys unprecedented levels of personal safety. Personal safety is a natural desire of most people. As such the promise of enhanced safety has always been a popular justification for ever more intrusive regulations and the involvement of government in the private affairs of citizens.

According to Dennis Prager, the belief that people are basically good creates an overwhelming obstacle to creating a "good" world. In a world that believes that people are naturally good, "goodness" is taken for granted and is not taught.