Tom Ellis
Mar 12, 2022

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Thank you for sharing this lamentable reality. Unfortunately as E.O. Wilson often observed, we are innately tribal, like all other social animals. This means we are strongly inclined to see our own tribe as “good guys” and our adversaries as “bad guys”—and it takes a lot of mental discipline and moral courage to rise above this instinctive reaction. Needless to say, manipulative leaders use relentless propaganda to stir up hatred for “the other” and devotion to “our people.” And this is why, as Wilson put it, “good people do bad things.” In dire times like these, I often recall a line from Bob Marley: “The truth is an offense, but not a sin.”

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Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis

Written by Tom Ellis

I am a retired English professor now living in Oregon, and a life-long environmental activist, Buddhist, and holistic philosopher.

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