Tryals

We like nice people. Nice people are easy to like. It’s not hard to see why. They are friendly, helpful, affable. They’re seldom selfish or demanding. They don’t cause trouble. They don’t offend or annoy us. They make our lives easier. They’re just plain agreeable. Nice. Perhaps nice people are nothing other than agreeable people. And agreeable means unprovocative, uncritical, unchallenging. Nice people don’t make us uncomfortable. They don’t get in our way. The

I have an excellent friend. His name is Roger. He is my very very best friend. In fact, you could not find a better and more devoted friend than Roger. He’s just an all-around fantastic guy. The best. The best of the best. Did I mention that Roger is a unicorn? He has a glossy pink coat with white stripes, pleasingly soft to the touch. His horn features a gentle spiral and looks delightfully like candy floss. It is firm and strong but never skewers anyone. Roger is g

Perhaps men should be grateful that women put up with them at all. The human species would survive the loss of men more successfully than the absence of women. The males of our species have generally proved themselves to be expendable—think absent fathers, soldiers, adventurers, explorers, gunfighters, gang-members, unemployed layabouts, unskilled lads. Think how carelessly warring societies throw away the lives of young men. Wait! Surely we need warriors, guards and pol

Surely, corruption is something that other people do. So we think. But behavioral studies make it clear that most people—the overwhelming majority—will lie and cheat to a limited degree. We call these lapses little white lies, innocent deceptions. We drive just a little above the speed limit—what’s the difference anyhow? So it becomes clear that we are much readier to excuse or justify our own innocent cheating than the brazen criminality of others. Individual human bei

Climate change is an emergent problem—an emergency. What can we do? First we take a breath. Then we think carefully, clearly, calmly. Setting our near-term economic interests against longer-term environmental concerns creates a false dilemma—as if they are in irreconcilable conflict. Yes, the implementation of effective global regulations to combat dangerous climate change will necessarily impose restraints upon our current economic practices—and they must do so if they ar

Human beings are obsessed with status, though not always aware of this obsession. They prefer to call their socially aggressive behavior ambition or success. But the competitive pursuit of status is largely about display—success is of little consequence if it is not seen by inferiors and rivals. So how do human beings show their success—that is, their superior social standing? They do so by displaying their ability to command and consume resources. More to the point, the

I have deliberately avoided citing specific sources on the topic of inequality (particularly the statistics) to avoid the off-putting appearance of an academic discourse. But here are some important and relevant starter sources that provide an evidential grounding for what I have written about so far: Keith Payne, The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live and Die (Penguin, 2017); an American sociologist looks at the contemporary, social consequences