Wrong? Right.

Did you give it any thought? Did you take a moment and think about what you really think about other people? I doubt it, to be perfectly honest, even if I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Let's face it: we don't like to think about what we think, most likely because we'd realize what it is and how silly it is as well.

Aristotle once quipped that the unexamined life is not worth living, but we've spent millennia trying to show him he had no idea what he was talking about, but to no avail. If our lives were all so worth living, why are we obviously trying to kill ourselves in so many slow and painful ways? OK, the world-war thing was a bit more active, I'll grant you that, but when that didn't work, it seems we resorted to more torturous means.

For you humanists out there, the behavior we see is that of the most highly evolved creature on the planet; for you fundamentalists, we're talking about the pinnacle of Creation. In either case, it's a pretty sad state of affairs. Really. The world we've made around us is the best we can do? We're (and I mean each and every one of us) all being all we can be? I don't think so. I think we're making a pretty sad showing. We'd better hope their aren't aliens out there observing us. This is pretty embarrassing behavior we putting on display.

Yes, you are perfectly correct in observing that I'm not sounding very optimistic about us as a species. I'm not. I think it's sad that the best we have to show for ourselves is envy, distrust, anger, and aggression. Oh ... sorry ... I forgot greed. Can't forget greed, you know. Or maybe you can: what is most obvious is what we take least notice of. We just assume that's the way things are.

Which brings me back to last-time's Menschenbild: did you think about it? I doubt it, to be perfectly honest, even if I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. No, that would require effort, to begin with, and what would happen if we found out that what we think of others isn't in line with everything else we think we believe? Right: that's the guaranteed beginning of a psychological crisis, and we wouldn't want another one of those now, would we? No, I don't think so.

No, the world is simply a terrible and violent place; one we'd like nothing more than to get away from. Our own interests are OK, those people we like are OK, most of the family can be tolerated, but other than that, well, there are just too many people thinking too many weird things. At least I'm different, you are thinking. And you're glad you're just you ... even if you are like everybody else.