Why can't we learn?

 

Why can't we learn?

A species that can't learn faces either stagnation or extinction.  Is humanity such a species?

A house divided cannot stand.  The human house is divided.  On one side we have the majority for whom empathy is an integral part of their being.  They relate to other living things and recognize the diversity and equality common to all.  They live and let live.  They freely share the gift of life.

On the other side we have the minority for whom empathy is a missing part of their being.  They only relate to other living things that also lack empathy.  They do not recognize the diversity and equality common to all.  They live and let die.  They do not share the gift of life.  Instead, they trade it like a commodity and horde it for themselves.

The empathetic humans I call People, and the non-empathetic humans I call Sociopaths.  People pursue liberty and freedom for all, while Sociopaths pursue power and control over People.

Slavery and genocide are wrong.  To those with empathy, these are self-evident truths.  A spokesman for the People even said as much in a famous declaration:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

-- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776

To those without empathy, slavery and genocide are their life's goal, the ultimate expression of power and control.  A spokesman for the Sociopaths even said as much in a little-known document:

It is patently impossible to discuss social engineering or the automation of a society, i.e., the engineering of social automation systems (silent weapons) on a national or worldwide scale without implying extensive objectives of social control and destruction of human life, i.e., slavery and genocide.

This manual is in itself an analog declaration of intent. Such a writing must be secured from public scrutiny. Otherwise, it might be recognized as a technically formal declaration of domestic war.

-- Unknown, Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, 1979

If a house divided cannot stand, then stagnation is not the fate of humanity.  Extinction is.  Survival lies in a United People.  Sociopaths must be exposed and dis-empowered.  If the People fail to do this, all of humanity, both the People and the Sociopaths, will join countless other extinct species in the pages of history.

We know where we end if we do not unite.  Who, what, when, where, and how do we begin?