Are you familiar with Rutger Bregman and his book Humankind? That gives a fresh perspective into humanity. One that I believe to be true. We're just too deep into the illusion of evilness, that's mandatory for status quo.
i think some very small contingent of often-extraordinarily rich and powerful -- and, therefore, comparatively-loud -- people either believe or claim to believe that humans are selfish/evil.
the fact that someone would have to write a book to countervail that claim shows the incredible power of those few people.
then again, we have folks like Steven Pinker, who - i don't know what his actual views on human nature are - but he definitely seems to be convinced that everything is getting better all the time - despite what seems to me to be at best a mixed record, and from here on out is going to be...challenging.
There are reasons why you believe this if you disproportionally own more than thousands combined. Even just for yourself you need some justification. What better than to declare humanity evil, constrained by its nature? Makes you sleep better at night and can justify anything you have done. It was just your nature.
i actually don't know his primary book - but that one sounds reasonable enough - that was definitely one of his reasons why he said the world was getting better.
Nature from the cellular level up is comprised out of struggles between parties. There is always a war in every level of biology.
There is an undeniable percentage of egotistical maniacs, psychopaths and narcissists in the human population. This ensures conflict will always be a part of human societies.
> There is always a war in every level of biology.
You assert this with no proof, when asked if you have read a book which presents a case for a different viewpoint: that there is (also) cooperation and interdependence.
It is, to me, so obviously absurd to state that humans - who invented cities, fire brigades, line dancing, and symphony orchestras - are defined by struggle and warfare. It's just nonsense. "We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower." - Marcus Aurelius.
> There is an undeniable percentage of egotistical maniacs, psychopaths and narcissists in the human population.
True. But first of all, where do they come from? Are they born as such? And second of all, should they define our societies? There are many ways in which people, who are neither psychopaths nor narcissists, are forced to act in self-serving ways simply because there is no alternative in this culture. And there are many ways of dealing with them that do not involve building everything on mistrust.
How about an Android OS stripped from everything that's not needed?
To be used with older devices. Privacy focused with an intentional black and white display. Plenty of devices laying around. The stripped features should also improve the battery life as well.
For IM I really loved BitlBee, maybe the mandatory IM could be within terminal. Notifications could be highly customized and the ux would be non-candy one.
To some parts this is a matter of education. It's been studied that few years of economic school makes people more greedy and selfish so I'm tempted to think that it'd also work the other way. And what is the capitalist society for people living in it if not a school of economics.
Setting a cap and communicating the target for personal emissions would be unkind to all billionaires and politicians. Thus aint gonna happen. Also this way of thinking will hilight a culprit. One that definitely doesn't want to be hilighted.
Besides the normal peoples guilt will be a huge blocker for anyone to even start thinking about personal cap.
