"Of course. All of this would work beautifully, Julie, if people would just be better than people have ever been. You'd be just one big happy family, if only you would be better than people have ever been. The warring factions in the Balkans would hug and make up. Saddam Hussein would dismantle his war machine and enter a monastery. Crime would disappear overnight. No one would break any law. You could dispense with courts, police, prisons. Everyone would abandon self-interest and work together to improve the lot of the poor and to rid the world of hunger, racism, hatred, and injustice. I could spend hours listing all the wonderful things that would happen . . . if only people would just be better than people have ever been.""Yeah, I'm sure of that." "This was the tremendous strength of the tribal way, that its success didn't depend on people being better. It worked for people they way they are--unimproved, unenlightened, troublesome, disruptive, selfish, mean, cruel, greedy, and violent." My Ishmael
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