Collaborative and Peace-Loving By Nature

(photo from U. Berkeley, with the caption: “New study reveals the brain mechanism that makes rats feel empathy for other rats, yet refrain from helping rats they deem to be ‘outsiders’. Photo by Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal”) Chris Hedges is a busy guy. In addition to being one of the most relentless public critics of the US/Western Empire (no matter who is in power), the award-winning journalist and former war correspondent also frequently interviews a wide variety of people with unique insights on the state of the world. Recently he interviewed Canadian-born sci-fi author Ray Nayler, who’s spent much of his life working in Russia, Western Asia, and Vietnam in a variety of diplomatic, peace volunteer, and naturalist roles (most recently with NOAA). The interview was mostly about Ray’s latest novel Palaces of the Crow, which I am currently reading. In this time of ‘forever wars’, Ray uses the novel to raise questions about whether humans are naturally cooperative or competitive, naturally…