Overcoming evil, Part 7: What will never work. And what could.

This is part 7 of a series of blog posts. Please start with part 1 first. In part 5 of this series I have described how humans are designed to survive even under extremely adverse circumstances. And that our mind is designed (by evolution) in a way that we don’t even realize when the environment has become extraordinarily hostile. In part 6 we have seen that noncooperative (i.e. evil) behavior is actually a completely natural reaction to specific (and normally rare) environmental conditions or states. I have written on this blog in several posts how the way we have organized our society promotes, or even creates, evil behavior. The more we depart from the primal pre-agricultural structure of society, the more humans have to pursue goals which are not perceived as satisfying. While our ancestors could pursue almost only primary goals which were associated with a natural reward (i.e. pleasure/fun), our modern lives are filled with the pursuit of 99% of - often highly abstract -…