Do you believe improving the human condition can bring about a better world?It is not that I do not believe one should attempt to improve the human condition, though I have little faith that government can or should be doing the lion’s share of the job. What I am skeptical of is that artificially creating a comfortable environment will change human nature. People are people, no matter how warm, well fed, and safe they are. Crature comforts do not make some one a “good” person. Whatever that mean. good is a subjective term when applied to behavior.
Look at it this way. We have gotten very good at eliminating the external problems that plague humanity. We can treat diseases. We can fight hunger. We can all but eliminate infant mortality and extend both life and quality of life for decades. By any measure, we have the capacity to technically turn the world into a utopia which could entail everything short of immortality for all. Yet the 20th century was the bloodiest in human history. People are still bigoted, violent, hungry for power, and inclined to commit genocide in that name of a devout belief, ideological, religious, and just plain old homicidal mania. The 21st century is only eleven years old, but it does ot look promising, either.
The bottom line is that if you believe providing for the needs of everyone--let us exclude the question of where the wealth needed for this task will come from or how long it could possibly flow--will create a utopia in which people put aside all their differences and personal flaws, even the significant ones like greed, jealousy, bigotry, and paranoia, you do not understand human nature. People will become violent even when their perfect world because slightly less perfect.
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