While this subject is serious, and this is my first blog on this site. I don't want anyone to think that all my blogs will be as serious as this one. In fact. Many of the ideas and thoughts racing through my over crowded mind right now are anything but serious. So if you were hoping for comic books, zombies or my latest thoughts on movies, follow me on twitter and keep an eye out for later blogs. 
     I wanted to spend this blog talking about human nature. Human nature is a complicated and tricky thing to talk about. It's one of those things that you have to be really careful when discussing because  a lot of what you're talking about can be chalked up to opinion or debatable facts. But as a whole I see human nature as a repetitive cycle. A never ending wheel with steps of progression. Each step building upon the last until the balance of things is so, well...unbalanced, that it topples over and falls apart. 
     We see through history that the human race as a whole is very destructive. Since the beginning of time people have been at war with one another. The purpose of those wars almost always come down to controlling other people. Humans are greedy, selfish, power hungry things. Originally groups of people organized into tribes or governments to benefit from one another. They traded goods. shared property and varied the gene pool. These are all good things. But somewhere along the road people realized that they needed structure to their group. Maybe a council or chief or a king. These people helped make the tribe or community run more smoothly. They made decisions for the group as whole, always making sure the community or tribe benefitted most from those decisions. And in the beginning this was a good thing. Looking back at ancient or so called primitive cultures, tribal leaders and chiefs lived their lives just like anyone else. They didn't have palaces or castles or bigger tents than anyone else. They were common people, usually appointed by the people in the community, realizing that this specific person had some sort of affinity for making good decisions.
     Now eventually these communities became bigger and eventually more powerful. The reasons for this vary, but mainly it comes down to the fact that some places in the world were able to grow better crops than others. These crops were quick growing grains in an area of the world called the fertile crescent, near the modern day mediterranean and southern europe. These better crops supported larger communities which allowed for people in those communities do more than work as farmers or hunter gatherers, such as engineers or philosphers. For more detail on this and other related subjects I recommend a great book by Author Jared Diamond called Guns, Germs and Steel.
    But somewhere during this time when different cultures were expanding and growing into complex civilizations, the rulers of these civilizations; the chiefs and elders and kings began to realize something. Their word is law and they could exploit this. If they said they were the son of a powerful God or they were God incarnate as we know different rulers had done (i.e. Egyptian Pharaohs, Mayan Kings.) the common people, fearing the wrath of their gods would follow the word of their rulers to the letter. And if the king or ruler said, "The God's demand gold!", the people would pay it. This made the rulers rich. And with money comes more power.
     If a ruler had a lot of money they could bribe other rulers to marry off their daughters, which meant that the rich ruler now had control over more territory which meant in turn more people would pay gold or valuables to the ruler. This cycle built empires. Sometimes, though, someone would want to keep the power or control they had over a certain group of people or land. This is where war comes from. People fighting for control over an area of land or a group of people. 
     Ultimately this desire for power, this greed that rulers had would destroy the civilization or community they lorded over. We see this time and time again. Sometimes it doesn't happen over night. Sometimes it doesn't happen in a single lifetime. Sometimes it takes generations or centuries. 
     For instance look at the fall of the Roman republic. Men in government realized the potential to make massive amounts of money by conquering other nations and exploiting them for taxes. Their desire to live lavish, over the top lives led to corruption in the government. These politicians eventually gained so much power that the only people they had to worry about conquering them were the other men in the government that they served with. Soon these men were fighting for the top dog spot and through tons of in fighting and backstabbing and conspiracy the republic eventually fell. The entire civilization was torn apart.
     The Roman Republic was set up for the people. It was a form of government that allowed the common people to vote, to have a say in the way their lives would be lived out. The concept was good, the intensions under which it was developed were good. But human nature, the nature to be greedy and power hungry and to serve only themselves made men warp and twist that 'goodness' and caused the civilization to fail.
    Another example of this is Communist Russia. The Russian people revolted against a power hungry, greedy ruler, the Czar, and through a lot of fighting and war and greed eventually formed, what is in theory, almost a perfect government. Communism. The idea of where everyone gives 100% of what they make or earn to the government. If they're chicken farmers and they harvest eggs, 100% of the eggs go to the government. If you make ten dollars and hour at forty hours a week, all four hundred dollars of that week's pay goes to the government and then based on your family size and needs the government 'ideally' gives you what is needed to live a normal healthy life. Basically the government owns everything and they divide everything up among the people equally. No one ever needs anything because they all ready have it and they're giving everything by a caring and fair government.
     Of course this never actually worked the way it was set up because the people in charge or the government were corrupt. Even Lenin stated, and I paraphrase of course, "If there's one person I don't want taking over this government after I'm gone, It's Stalin." Because even Lenin knew how corrupt Stalin was. And that is a lot to say. Not to mention what happened to the USSR. They entered a cold war with the U.S. and both nations nearly destroyed the planet with a nuclear war.  
     Even now, in our time I feel that we are experiencing the same thing. The United States of America was set up Republic, very similar to the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic's structure of government was so ideal and perfect in the founding father's eyes, in fact, that it was the model and basis by which the founding father's developed the United States' Government. The idea that every person votes on what rights and laws govern their life is a great idea of how to run a nation. But in recent years its become very apparent that we no longer live in a republic. It's not even called a republic anymore it's called a 'democracy'.
     Today people don't vote for what laws they want governing their lives, they vote for the best actor. The better publicized politician. And those politicians are controlled by funding, by people called lobbyists, companies that pay politicians in return for the laws and rights that the company wants. And now our economy is crashing.
     So, a politician's greed allows them to be bought out by company to feed his or her self interests, their big house, their expensive car, their nice clothes, nice schools for their children, the summer home, the extended vacations. And in turn for all of that the politician passes or presents laws that allow the lobbying company to run their business with out restrictions from the government such as lower wages for the common people. This is also a huge example of greed.
     Look at any national or international corporation. I have worked for companies in the past that in only six months make over $150,000,000! That's a ton of money. And while this company might have a lot of departments and a lot of overhead A hundred fifty million dollars in six months is more money than the company needs to function properly. Of course the people at the bottom of the totem pole are making minimum wage while the people at the top live like kings. This is greed, self interest, this is Human nature. But why?
    Why is it in human nature to build a structure that helps everyone and then warp or twist it to meet the needs and interests of only one person? Why form governments to serve the people or build a nation or religion or anything at all if the ultimate goal is serve yourself above others?
     What is it in our nature that makes us do all of those things? Is it something left over from the lizard part of our brain? Some primordial piece of DNA tied into everything else that makes us human? How can we overcome this cycle of destruction? If we as a race can not over come this major flaw how can we ever progress? If we can create governments with good intensions, if we can form religions with caring and loving teachings, if we have the ability to create these passionate thoughts I feel we have the ability to overcome the greed, the desire for power and the self interest. But first we have to understand it. How do we understand this thing I've been calling Human Nature? That is the first step to over coming it. Maybe you have some answers? Let me know what you think about this. I'll take what everyone has to offer and compile it. I'd like to know how many people agree with me on this, or disagree.