humans lived in small communes for most of their history.

the renaissance wasnt people deciding suddenly to be rational and inventive. the feudal religious system was dying and stopped being the limiting factor.

capitalism is our modern day limiting factor, the one that encourages us to be greedy to survive when we dont need it anymore.

No, they haven’t always been extremely greedy and selfish. All social animals strike a balance between self-interest and group-interest, and humans are no different.

Some humans have always been extremely greedy and selfish. And some of those humans have always been charismatic and persuasive. And many other humans are not equipped to differentiate between emotionally persuasive and right. Well-intentioned humans will often connect themselves to the wrong people or ideas.

That’s not really their fault. We’re repurposing evolution’s creations for things they weren’t built to do. We’re trying to build empathy and connection with people that are chronologically, geographically, and/or psychologically distant from us.

And unfortunately we’re trying to do that while a handful of us try to sever those connections and build physical and metaphorical barriers between us for their own self-interest.

Most of us struggle with the ability to feel empathy and connection with our own future selves. We often choose instant gratification over personal benefit, we often choose to forego temporary burdens in the present at the foreseen expense of finding greater burdens in the future.

That’s not greed or self-interest. That’s the opposite of self-interest. That’s just the burden of the rising ape. But it’s no reason to lose hope, and it’s no reason to stop trying.

The most important proof that humans aren’t all greedy and selfish is that people are still trying to do better. We are still trying to build better connections, even as others try to tear them apart.