The good old days were not so good, were they?

Professor Lucy P Marcus laments the disregard for the 'Golden Rule' - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". "Politicians, even in the world's supposedly enlightened democracies, are refusing to provide refuge to desperate people fleeing brutal war; making little, if any, effort to address high and rising economic inequality; and are all but ignoring the factors driving civil-rights movements like America's Black Lives Matter," she writes. Altruism maybe in our genes but at what time does self-preservation take over? We pine for the 'good old days' but those days never really existed. All human beings may belong to one species but we are not defined by our genetic similarity. We are defined by culture which depends on language, self awareness and an appreciation of beauty. France has a border with Germany on one side and Spain on the other but, although people must have been travelling, trading and marrying between the different regions, their languages, culture and traditions are totally different. Instead of criticising the British for voting to leave the European Union. Prof Marcus should study why the people are still so different when the Treaty of Rome, creating free trade between France and Germany, was signed in 1957 and Spain joined the European Common Market in 1986. As for religions, they did recommend doing good to others but only for the believers. People of other religions were often killed or forcibly converted. No wonder a lot of today's young people are atheists. The difference is enormous. While fertility is falling precipitously in western countries women in Aleppo are still giving birth to babies even though the city has been at war for over 4 years. There are 30 births everyday at Al-Zahra Hospital in Aleppo. Why are people still breeding? Why are they immune to the suffering of their own children? We see hungry, pot-bellied children, cripples, old women begging on the streets of Delhi. It is heartbreaking and fills us with rage at the inequity but we are told not to give money to children because it encourages child-trafficking. Why do parents give birth to children to send them out to beg? The world has too many people and as they cut down forests to grow food so global warming will cause a fall in agricultural output. Western countries became rich by looting resources of their colonies to feed their industries but that kind of exploitation is becoming difficult. Countries in Asia took advantage of their poverty by manufacturing cheap goods to be sold in the west. This transferred well paying manufacturing jobs out of western countries. Import of cheap goods kept a check on inflation, allowing interest rates to be kept low, and resulting asset price bubbles, creating massive inequality. That is why there is so much conflict. It will only get worse.