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We see the world, not as it is, but as we
are, or...as we are conditioned to see it.
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The Myth of Human Nature
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In a society that is predicated on competition
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and really, very often the ruthless exploitation
of one human being
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by another
the profiteering of other people's problems
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and very often the creation of problems for
the sole purpose of profiteering
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the ruling ideology will very often justify
that behavior
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by appeals to some fundamental, unalterable
human nature
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So the myth in our society is that people
are competitive by nature, and that they're
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individualistic, and that they're selfish.
The reality is quite the opposite.
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We have certain human needs.
The only way that you can talk about human
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nature concretely is to recognize that there
are certain human needs.
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We have a human need for companionship, for
close contact, to be loved, to be attached
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to, to be accepted, to be seen, to be received
for who we are.
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If those needs are met,
we develop into people that are compassionate,
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cooperative, and who have empathy for other
people. So, the opposite that we often see
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in our society is in fact a distortion of
human nature, precisely because so few people
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have their needs met.
So yes, you can talk about human nature but
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only in the sense of basic human needs that
lead to certain traits if they are met, and
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a different set of traits, if they're denied.