| ----... 4-11-03 Forgive me. I did mean to reply to your email from yesterday, but never got a chance to do so. I was glad to read your calm and reasoned (and not only because you agreed with some of what I said) response. I do feel sometimes that I take the time to think out positions and emails, and that in response I only receive ranting. You have probably hit on the fundamental difference from which all of our debating flows: our basic understanding of human beings. However, I don�t believe that, on my part at least, there is a black-and-white view of the state of humans. I don�t believe that everyone is capable of behaving morally all of the time, but only that people are more capable of doing so than what our cultural institutions perceive. There are, I think, many people -- certainly millions, and maybe even billions -- who are working to, as you said, "accelerate the march towards a greater society," or who would at least be willing to do so if the current demands of feeding, clothing and sheltering themselves and their families weren�t activities demanding most of their time. I count myself among those who hope for -- and attempt to take action leading to -- a society that has a more even distribution of resources, greater cooperation among peoples, a more tolerant attitude toward individual differences, an emphasis on all forms of art, and an understanding that human beings are only one strand in the web of life and, as the most intelligent of those strands, have an obligation to act with the best interests of the web in mind. Crazy, idealistic rhetoric? Many would say so, and maybe you would as well. I refuse, however, to accept that people will "always look to act in their own interests." Some do and some don�t. If those who don�t can ever get out from under the control, exploitation, and violence of those who do, then I think the creed of the selfless will spread even more. As it is now, selfish propaganda is accepted by most people as the way the world is and has to be. It is in the interest of the powerful to keep it that way, or the masses would rise up. Jim |