“Unlocking Humanity: The Surprising Secret Behind What Makes Us Truly Human”
Further, mobs are relatively easily swayed by exploiting facets of human psychology built into all of us. At all levels, while many may strive to be the ideal human and version of ourselves, we are all still human- subject to the same weaknesses, biases, and prejudices as those who came before us for tens of thousands of years. And even the most intelligent of us can be manipulated in various ways relatively easily, whether we like to admit it to ourselves or not. Thus, how an ideal society and government may function in theory, and one that can actually function well in the real world, are two VERY different things. Let alone forming a structure of government and laws that stands the test of time and provides some level of stability across many generations, with, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of constitutions going the way of the dodo within a decade or two of their establishment.
Unsurprisingly from all this, forming effective and stable governments is extremely difficult, and I don’t think anyone would argue any government that exists today has yet reached the ultimate ideal for all. As the “Father of the U.S. Constitution”, James Madison, would sum up, “no Government of human device, & human administration can be perfect; [thus] that which is the least imperfect is therefore the best Govt.”
But in the last several hundred years we humans have come a long way in this regard, and, perhaps not coincidentally, much like our progress starting 10,000 years ago or so through to relatively modern times made our progress the previous few hundred thousand years seem glacial, in the last few hundred years, humanity has advanced to a level in that timespan that makes our progress the previous 10,000 years seem at a snail’s pace. While countless things went into that, at its core many of these factors derive and were the indirect product of these more modern structures for civilization that allow extra freedoms, education, and relative stability for its populaces’ to prosper on an individual level. And, indeed, areas of the world where such relative stability hasn’t been a thing, generally haven’t seen the same level of advancements.
