The sadly amusing paradox of the matter is: We do have the knowledge to redirect all of human behavior toward a safer, more productive, less destructive pathway of evolution. However, at this juncture, we do not have the awareness, intelligence nor level of critical thinking skills to fully understand the importance of immediately putting this behavior modification methodology into play.

And although seemingly not connected but then again very much so - relating to a paraphrase explanation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s well known summation, “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger”. The contributor just before me proposed a potential paradox.

“Though, this saying can be seen from two perspectives. On one hand, we may say that only in the battle field we become stronger. If we want to become stronger only by learning from others’ experiences there will be just a little improvement. Without going through tough situations, our character remain weak. On the other hand, if these tough events go beyond our human limits, they may make us weaker or even leave us with a horrible disability.”

The difficult but irrifutable truth of this matter is that “only in the battle field we become stronger”. There is no other way for this transition to take place in any significant way. In all of life, one learns very little of use, if anything, from learning of others experiences. One cannot know what any experience is like, not even close, unless they experience it themselves. And if you die trying, then you die trying.