Can’t we all just get along?
By Vincent Truman On March 22nd, 2007Answer: no.
The reasons are two-fold:
1. We are a war-like species. There’s nothing that gives us more pleasure than having more of something than someone else: more friends, more possessions, more money, more love, more pictures of unicorns on your myspace, more faith in an imaginary space daddy, more self-rightgeous indignation if a presidential candidate says something that would be considered nothing if said around a water cooler. And if by chance there are areas where we don’t have a chance (ie, singing, dancing or living off the land), there’s plenty of television shows we can watch others get more than someone else.
2. We are a social species. We need people in our lives, frankly. Isolation doesn’t work for the human species, unless you are working on a manifesto in Bear’s Buttcrack, Montana. Interaction is absolutely essential to any life.
Combine the two and you have a civilization of selfish zealots who have realized that there’s no point in having more than other people if they’re not around to see it.
So next time you hear ’can’t we all get along’ - and you will - you’ll know the proper answer.
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