What human quality is most likely to cause us, as a race, the most suffering or hardship?
I'm not looking for anything in particular, but if you can come up with a human characteristic, please name it and try to figure out where this trait stems from... What do you believe would be help keep this trait from causing so much trouble...
Examples of traits:
Hatred
Dishonesty
Ignorance
Complacency
Love, or compassion
Intolerance
Dumb selfishness is indeed bad, but I guess selfishness itself can be turned into something positive if eventually most people invest it in some form of reciprocal altruism, which is kind of like being cooperative because you know that's the best for you individually. Side: stubbornness
Hatred and intolerance are the most visibly dangerous qualities, but both stem from ignorance. Dishonesty only works on the ignorant. Complacency is not necessarily a result of ignorance, but is only harmful to oneself or others in the face of other dangerous qualities. Love and compassion are never dangerous until they become twisted. And they cannot become twisted unless one is ignorant of the emotions. So ignorance really is the most dangerous quality in anyone. Side: Ignorance
1
point
Our larger-than-average buttocks. Because having big asses enabled us to walk fully upright, which in turn left our hands free, which enabled us to pick up sticks and rocks and pummel our neighbors with them, which then in turn led to the development of more complex brains so that our neighbors could come up with a good way of pummelling us back and then we could come up with a better way of pummelling them again . . . and then keep doing that for a few thousand years 'til we get to nuclear and chemical weaponry, all because humankind's great big backsides enabled our ancestors to stand up and thwock their neighbors over the head with a tree branch. The ass, fo shizzle. Side: Big asses
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