During most of human history, most of the humans have lived under an internal regime of self-deception, confusion, incoherence and foolishness within themselves

During most of human history, most of the humans have lived under an internal regime of self-deception, confusion, incoherence and foolishness within themselves. The Chinese statesman, Han Fei, stated in 300 BC that if one searches through the whole of China of the day, one will find maybe 10 real scholars, 10 truly honest men. One cannot make a government out of 10 men. There are many jobs to do, therefore some sort of solution is needed, and the wiser heads come up with something... not optimal, but something that doesn't collapse (for the time being). The fools are many, the wise very few. When Rickover tried to instil real responsibility into parts of the navy, the majority thinking turned against him and worked against him most of the time. When Lee Kuan Yew tried to make something of Singapore, there were a thousands of obstacles in the form of natural habits of the common people. He gave them high rise buildings, they took their goats and cows right upto the tenth floor. He gave them elevators, they urinated on its floors, despite having detectors. People are mostly embedded in popular culture, decorating themselves and their thoughts in superficial ways, but ultimately living mostly at the lower end of human potential. The habits of thought they carry are no better than the primitive man, except at the superficial levels. The material advance of civilisation has not helped the state of affairs; it has made meaning far more difficult to attain than before, forcing simple people to live within a complex world totally incomprehensible to them. Thankfully for the species, having 10 wise heads for millions of mostly foolish heads "still works" for the time being. Humanity has somehow survived this long, so something must be going right, for this thing we call civilisation. One often wonders though, for how long?