: Nonsense. People are warped by society into selfish,
: cynical, egotistical habits which taint their spirits
: and prevent them from understanding their true,
: virtuous, human nature, and bring them to sophistry,
: nihilism, and other illogic which lacks both reason
: and heart.
: Despite their inherent goodness, people aren't aware of
: what they are capable of, and have been forced into a
: vicious cycle of obsolete primal instincts that
: contravene and preponderate high-minded human nature,
: bringing them to cunning, cleverness, trickery,
: malice, and apathy.
And who makes up society? People do.
Essentially, what you seem to be suggesting here suggesting here is that the individual is pure whereas the group is corrupt. In the cases of a few religious hermits, you might have a point, but these have always been the exception rather than the rule: of all those who choose to reject society, you'd probably get at least 20 Ebenezer Scrooges for every Mother Teresa.
As for sophistry, although it has become heavily discredited by Socrates and his disciples, in Socrates' time, the word 'Sophist' meant simply 'wise man'- in particular those who claimed the ability to teach or transmit this expertise and to teach knowledge of human excellence or arete. And, let's be fair- is that such a bad thing?
As for 'obsolete primal instincts', well, bear in mind that early man was probably a lot more generous than he is today, always willing to share food with his family/clan group if necessary - but always in the knowledge that they'd do the same for him.
So... sorry to rain on your parade, but by and large, humans have always been basically selfish creatures, and chances are they'll stay that way. Or, to quote Ben Hur "Balthasar is a good man. But until all men are like him, we must keep our swords bright!"
