Liza May wrote:
> << I believe that our psychological and emotional states come from our
> evolutionary
>  history. Greed for example could be thought of as a misguided effort to
> accumulate and store for the winter or drought. >>
> Great thinking. What I wonder about is, how did it happen that one person got
> twisted enough to go against his nature, and so confused that (s)he started to
> see survival as an individual thing instead of seeing it as survival of his
> group? How did it happen that (s)he lost sight of the fact that his own
> survival in fact depended upon the survival of his group?  How did greed
> start?

I think that is pretty easy to explain. There once was two animals that
lived in the same niche. One ate just what he needed. ( I prefer he to
(s)he because it flows better when it is read, but I respect your
concern. ) The other ate what he needed and gathered extra and stored
it. Winter or a drought came an their main food source was depleted. The
greedy one had just enough stored to allow him to survive but the other
one died. Of course the other one could have been more aggressive that
the greedy one and then stole his food. Now aggressive fighting is even
more rewarded than greediness. I believe these are all unconscious
behaviors.

You talked about group survival verses individual survival. I think this
is the biggest societal problem we have. How do we get people to look at
the benifit of improving every ones situation instead of just trying to
make theirs better. If every one could see that educating, feeding and
providing a good environment for all children would lead to less crime,
safer streets, less costly health care, and so on, every one would
support it and think it was cheap.

> << Territorial fighting is also found in many species and has survival value
> for them.>>
> Yes, but it doesn't have survival value for us!! One of the ways we're
> different. Territorial fighting is anti-survival for us.

It is hard to repress old biology.

> What a thoughtful and intelligent post! Thanks loads. Glad you're on the list!

Thank you for your kind words. I though it might be too off subject.

Frank.