A BETTER HUMAN STORY — Key Ideas at a Glance

• How the Rise of Civilization Unleashed a Dangerous Force
The transition to civilization broke humanity out of the natural order, inevitably triggering a systemic disorder — anarchy among societies — that shaped history in destructive ways.

• Why Human History Took Such Ugly Directions
The resulting inevitable “war of all against all” led to a selective process where only those societies that could prevail in such a struggle could survive and spread. This systemic force inevitably empowered what might be called the Spirit of the Gangster.

• The Ugliness of History Is Not Human Nature Writ Large
The resulting violent, unjust patterns of civilization stem not from our inherent nature, but from the systemic forces inevitably unleashed by the rise of civilization. We are better creatures than we’ve thought ourselves to be.

• The Emergence of a Coherent Force That Makes the World Worse
A pattern of brokenness — cruelty, domination, injustice — moves through history like a Force of Evil, transmitted through the selection for the ways of power and the traumas that inflicts.

• The Evolutionary Roots of Value and Meaning
Biological Evolution shaped our experiential tendencies — toward what is of “value,” toward beauty, and toward spiritually impactful experience — because they served life. These are not illusions, but real dimensions of our nature, reflecting what helped our ancestors pass their DNA along to us.

• Why the Battle Between Good and Evil Is Inescapable
Once civilization begins, it’s inevitable: two coherent forces — one toward brokenness, the other toward wholeness — will contend for power. The stakes, now, are nothing less than whether human civilization will survive on this planet for the long haul.

• America’s Current Crisis Is Part of This Larger Story
The destructive force now visible in U.S. politics — and the failure of Liberal America to perceive it in time, and to confront effectively — is one expression of the long struggle between Good and Evil in the civilized world.

• This Story Offers Clarity, Hope, and a Call to Action
Understanding these patterns enables us to unburden ourselves from false guilt, envision a better civilization, and throw ourselves into the battle on the side of life.

This integrative vision of the ongoing, troubled story of our species is developed here.

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This integrated picture of humankind’s story — and of the American crisis — has been developed in four major forms. All are available in full here:

The Fateful Step — a 2023 essay series.

A Better Human Story — a 2017 series.

What We’re Up Against: The Destructive Force at Work in Our World — and How We Can Defeat It — a 2015 book (available here, free, as a PDF, in its entirety).

Press the Battle — a 2014 series focused on confronting the rising destructive force in American politics.

(And you can find another substantive overview here.)