SPECIES INSANITY: ITS CAUSE AND CURE

There are any number of reasons why people behave,
individually or collectively, in the destructive ways they
do, including over-population, ethnic competition, eco-
logical degradation, exploitation, lust for power, neuro-
logical disease, world views at odds with reality, and low
self-esteem. However, there are two fundamental issues
i would especially like to point out at this time.

First and most basically, there are multiple aspects of the
human psyche that easily lead to such behavior. To make
use of one explanatory system or point of view (POV)---
Sigmund Freud's---unconscious elements of our minds,
collectively called by Freud the Id, are full of self-serving
and socially uninhibited tendencies that are all too willing
to make themselves manifest. These primal psychological
energies work on 'us', i.e. our conscious sense of who we
are, to behave in ways that are often destructive to our-
selves and others.

Secondly, for US* Americans especially, a combination of
anxiety, a sense of meaninglessness, and a programmed
distractive consumerism work together to make us uncon-
scious of much of what goes on around us, even if an in-
creased consciousness would benefit us all.

As for the cure, that will take much more blood, toil, tears,
sweat, and ink.

*Every citizen in the Western hemisphere is American. Citizens of the
United States of America are US Americans.