Idealist’s Fantasy

One useful device is the idealist’s fantasy of a better human world that is quite different from the one we are used to. For example George W. Bush, when president of the US, bristled with innate tendencies and little understanding of human nature; he insisted that a good way to introduce democracy to Iraq was to destroy the infrastructure of the country, impose military rule, imprison and torture anyone who objected.

In an idealist’s counterfactual world, G.W. Bush would not become the President of the US and no-one would believe that military invasion was a tool of democratic reform. Any man or woman qualified to be the President of the USA would be nice and smart with a deep understanding of human nature and an aversion for killing.

The US President, a self-declared Christian, would obey Christian ethics, love his enemies and turn the other cheek. He would love his neighbors, even people who were hostile. He would know that two wrongs do not make a right.

In my counterfactual world, there are only defensive military organizations and no adventitious killing. Nations are respectful, generous and tolerant of each others’ differences.

Disputes are resolved by negotiation, grooming, gift-giving, music, dance, sports and shared celebrations. There are no “terrorists” since all humans would have constructive ways of expressing and remedying their grievances. The United Nations would be reorganized and would flourish as a forum of cooperation with a mandate to intervene when any state failed to protect the lives and rights of its citizens.

If, by a remarkable feat of genetic engineering, belligerence behaviors were mostly eliminated from the human brain, atavistic, belligerent leaders might emerge from time to time. They would be given the opportunity to duel in public displays of their skill and courage as warriors. They would not be seen as heroes but as irrational pugilists, atavistic misfits that need to do battle in ceremonial combat without harming others.

If Bush disliked Hussein, he would challenge him to a duel. Let the best man win. You would save a hundred thousand lives and a trillion US dollars spent on destroying Iraq’s infrastructure and killing innocent people. The domestic economy of the US would flourish with constructive, humanitarian enterprises and would not miss the vanishing munitions industry.

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Surviving Human Nature

Surviving Human Nature is part of the  Psychology & Philosophy series, developed by Persona Publications, a division of Environmed Research. The books are copyright by Environmed Research and all rights to reproduction by any means are reserved. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Surviving Human Nature  published online and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings.

The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Publications. The date of publication is 2008.
The URL to the book description is http://www.alphastore.org/Persona/Survival/