At the same time, learn to think analytically and logically. Holistic comprehension of reality is complementary to logical analytical reasoning. Try to learn to harmoniously think like both a scientist and a poet.
We are different from the great apes in part because we can consciously control our instinctive selfish behaviors better, and because our awareness, and degree of interaction with, others of our species is greater. Our consciousness includes and interacts with that of other members of our species more fully. Yet, as I've shown, it is still quite limited.
We are still closer to the apes than we are to the angels.
By expanding our innate mental abilities to abstract essential details from complex reality-just as the apes did when using numbers rather than actual objects-we can develop clearer understandings of which forms of social ordering are sustainable and which are not. In the context of possessing a wider awareness of others than most contemporary humans have, we can then be much more likely to act with the good of all others in mind. Such a society would likely pass the test I mentioned above. We could then be that creature which is to humans as humans are to great apes.
The necessary evolution is mental not genetic.
By beginning with these changes in ourselves we take our first steps toward societal transformation. That road will be long and hard. Yet if there is to be a future worth living in, we must journey down it.
I'll have more to say about personal and societal transformation in subsequent essays.
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