User blog comment:Cheese Lord/Why can't we just admit it...?/@comment-4295646-20120108235723

Very Hobbesian. But no, I don't think that's the truth; one problem with your claim is that you're cherry-picking evidence. You intend to point to humanity's long history of conflict and oppression, while leaving unexplained our (equally human) ability to behave otherwise. We're not dumb beasts.

I'm skeptical of the idea of "human nature" in the first place: is there really any merit or taboo that has run unbroken through all the world's innumerable cultures? Even if there is, what's so great about it that the smartest thing to do in response to our baser urges is to accept them? And if you don't find "feeding off of each other's misery" evil, then what does count as evil? Most importantly: where do we get morality from, if we aren't born with the capacity for it? These are my questions to you. I think the notion of inbuilt selfishness is presumptuous, and not as obviously true as you think.

(Also, using the example of video games and movies to argue the inherent violence of the human race is a little ambitious, I think. Since those have only been around for a hundred years at best. Literature and art are more valid, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue that we like the bloody stuff there best.)