The fundamental problem with human societies is and always has been rooted in one cold, hard fact. We have been unable to come to agreement on two things: what constitutes morality and how to enforce morality’s control over behavior: both individual behaviors and the collective conduct that emerge from our interactions with one another.
Put another way, we remain feral creatures whose selfishness is always greater than our sense of responsibility. We act as if behaviors that serve us, individually, are more important (and therefore completely excusable) than behaviors that serve the interests of society at large. This is not necessarily true of every individual, but its truth is sufficiently expansive that this fact exercises control over humanity’s inability to come to grips with not only living “in humanity” but its inability to behave humanely.
What is the solution? We’ve tried religion; that didn’t work. Any other ideas?
Fear is, indeed, at the root. Communication can help, but I think we have to conquer our fear of those we do not know and we have to overcome our propensity to hate those we fear.
Religion did not work because it was enforced only within tribes, and was not shared into others. By definition, it cannot be, without resistance and the associated violence. Tribes, and the associated paranoia/dehumanization, as I see it, ARE the problem. Global communication and travel will, if we survive long enough, help with this problem…although the growing number of poor people, those to whom global travel and communication is both impossible and unknown, will hold us back. If we could send every reactionary in the U.S. to Italy for a week, they might change. If every Russian could come here for a month, Russian/US animosity would disappear. We fear those we do not know, and we hate those whom we fear.