Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The reason it's so hard to “fix” anything in America is because we have based our predictions of human behavior on a false set of assumptions. Americans are raised to be optimistic and forward-thinking, with a strong undercurrent of Judaeo-Christian values that stress honesty, integrity, loyalty & other altruistic feelings, but in fact, students of human nature throughout history know that homo sapiens are evolutionary creatures who respond first to the most base animal instincts and reactions, and it's only through conditioning & training that we raise above our base emotions of envy, spite, resentment, greed. sloth, gluttony, avarice & lust to achieve our more enlightened ideals.

Your own self-awareness can be measured by the percentage of time you are able to raise above your base emotions: how quickly were you able to overcome your envy so that you could express true congratulations on your brother’s new job? Could you leave the largest pieces of pie for the people who would enjoy it most? Can you feel admiration for the guy with a better education than you rather than resentment? But even if you have braced yourself against base motives, know that the people around you may not have been as successful in subsuming their own irrational negativity, and are thinking those things about you.