Socratic Monologue

While the first clause in this conjunction is undeniably true, even obvious:

...the second clause is arguably one of the most widely held and dangerous self-fulfilling prophesies around.

We -- collectively -- haven't put much energy at all into understanding why people are wicked. Even psychology has changed over time from 'the study of the mind' into 'the study of human behavior', and so we don't even have a scientific discipline that could help us figure out what's behind people's wicked behavior.

We've thrown around many ideas, though: some people say that if everyone loved Jesus with all their heart, they would be good. But there are too many counterexamples of (apparently) true believers who have done horrifying things.

Some people say if everyone had enough money, they'd be good. But there are too many counterexamples of well-off people who have done horrifying things.

Ban guns; too many counterexamples of non-firearm violence (worse by far than mass shootings, even. For every firearm death in the US, twenty cases of child abuse occur. Twenty.).

Ban drugs; makes things worse.

Ban alcohol; made things worse.

So while it is true that we haven't changed, it is also true that we haven't really tried to get underneath behavior and figure out why people (me, you, everybody) are like this. And if we did, would we do anything about it? We can't even figure out how to get roads fixed -- are we going to change the fact that each of us approaches each other from behind a shield and with a dagger in hand? Do we have the guts?