The Grand Illusion: Good vs Evil

Thanks to our entertainment industry, and sadly, our very history, we as a people believe there is  such a thing as a struggle between good and evil in this world.  This implies that some human beings are inherently empathetic and moral and some that are inherently hurtful and immoral.

Well, it turns out, biologically, about 95% of human beings have a fairly strong social moral imperative towards empathy towards other human beings and living things.  This makes our society automatically and understandably cooperative and helpful to each other.  The chemical responsible for it all is oxytocin (sometimes called the friendship drug).  The 5% of human beings that don't have a strong social moral imperative don't have an oxytocin response built in, so they are antisocial individuals, not necessarily evil or criminal, though, when push comes to shove, they will typically be the first to exhibit such bad behaviors.

But this is true only when the society is abundant.  When hit with scarcity of basic needs and over-stressed, a society will typically revert to selfish behaviors that will engender actions that will augment their chances of survival.

So if you look at it this way:  if our society provides comfort and reduces stress for people, a dominant portion of the population will be cooperative, helpful and loving towards each other, even strangers.  On the other hand, if our society provides an environment of competition for basic needs, our people will be stressed and therefore antisocial behaviors increases.

So no, there is no such thing as Good and Evil people:  only good and bad social structures driving behaviors.

Also, based on research done at the University of British Columbia in psychology, we as a species are also more motivated in reducing stress, and therefore, becoming more stable socially, by relieving ourselves of tasks we do not find enjoyable.  In essence, given an amount of money, we feel happier buying time than buying material goods.  This is a simple biological imperative based on motivations to relieve discomfort or feeling more comfortable.

Therefore, logically, as a society with plenty of time-liberating technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, robotics and more, we should be striving towards providing basic needs to our people and relieving their stress as much as possible.

I talk more about the Good and Evil paradigm in the video below:

We have to change the way our economies work to encourage personal and social well-being.  Currently, companies are created to grow profits, which oftentimes means social good and a population's health is jeopardized for it.  We now from research that good habits like fasting improve health but the food and pharmaceutical industries, powerhouses in our economy, don't want us to make it a popular thing.  Governments are not very different as impersonal entities striving to grow their influence, often to the detriment of the population they are supposed to represent and of course others.

This must also change.

Collectively, if we do change our way to doing things fundamentally, by making sure every single person on the planet has basic needs met and lives a stress-free life, the greater majority of the population, the empathetic 95%, would be completely devoted to everyone's well-being and health.  The remaining 5% would generally follow the trend because they have no selfish reason to be criminal or dangerous to others.

What a world could that be?

Thankfully, thanks to some people and organizations that work towards paradigm changes, like yourselves I'm sure, and thanks to technological advancements and distribution of free information through the Internet, our world is transforming quickly into an extraordinary place:

1. The Internet is creating a global village of informed people:  Having the ability to double check on sources, ask questions of online experts and generally get second opinions on just about anything for free makes us largely more educated as a people and thus less prone to react based on fear.
2. A new de-centralized model is halting unabated consumerism:  people are tired of giant firms controlling lives and promoting their product.  People are much more informed and focus on what is good for THEM, instead of what is good for others.  Lots of smaller companies are emerging and even more individuals are offering services now to others.  Products and services are no longer the purview of the large firms.  Even concepts like eBay, Freelancer, Uber and Airbnb, with their huge successes, show that people are willing to trust other individuals to provide services properly.  We are linking each other as individuals through platforms created by larger firms, but the services themselves are more and more person to person, creating stronger social ties and alleviating the fear of the "other guy".
3. A better work model is emerging:  people are more and more self-employed, and among those that are still employed with large companies, are often working from home, making their lives less stressful.  Smaller companies employ the larger proportion of the working population nowadays, all with different ways of doing things, giving rise to choice of employment from the perspective of the workers.
4. We have access to healthy food again:  availability of information ensures that people are better educated about what they should be eating and from what sources.  This makes them better advised shoppers for goods.  It's a good thing because commercial interests have been trying to sell their products for years espousing twisted truths about the health benefits of their products over others.  Sometimes, it was about other benefits, like cost.  Even large giants like MacDonalds have had to change their way of doing things and actually attempt to keep their low fast food prices while improving the quality of their food.  GMO companies can no longer carelessly sell products that are unenvironmental, and are redirecting their research towards creating foods that will be healthier instead.  
5. Mainstream media is not our only source of information anymore:  mainstream media is reputed to be controlled by large financial interests that have their own agenda.  Though not inherently evil, this can skew how information is digested, transferred and ignored.  Lots of small valid media streams exist now allowing individuals access to multiple sources of good information and second opinions.

(I took most of this information from this article, modified according to my own information and research).

In order to continue our journey towards a better world, we should continue, as individuals, to push out information onto the Internet, share, endeavor to adopt educated healthy buying habits to drive the economy towards products and services that we really want for ourselves, our family and others and we have to be engaged in the necessary structural changes that will provide vital basic needs to everyone on the planet, thus ushering in an era of prosperity defined by happiness, empathy and the joy to be alive with extremely minimal criminal incidence.

Isn't that something to work for?  I'm all for it!