Why Antagonism Dominates Our Civilization

I’ve known Dan Conine for a couple of years now, and he never ceases to amaze me with his insight as a political philosopher and social critic. Here, he writes:

We have got to….think about the general configuration of humanity. Psychological and physical borders need to disappear between states and nations as cooperative behavior becomes the norm.

Yes, this is true. That would be great. I’d love to see that happen — but I don’t.  And I often wonder what causes the general tone of antagonism that so dominates our lives here on Earth.

There are probably a great number of issues here – of which here are two — neither of them likely to change anytime soon. 

1) Man has a great number of animal instincts. In many ways, we’re a hybrid life form: part jungle survivalist and part empathetic intellectual.

2) I believe the balance named above is manipulated by powerful, amoral people for their own benefit.  I.e., we’re guided into hating each other. Note that for everything you hear that might motivate you to do something kind, you hear 100 things that generate fear and mistrust.  That’s not a coincidence, my friend.

As always, thanks for writing in; it’s never a dull experience.