Rutger Bregman on elites, survival of the friendliest, rethinking human history

16 insights saved from this video by @psychology

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Assume people are selfish and aggressive, then build cutthroat institutions that teach them to behave that way.
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A German town turned a neo-Nazi march into a fundraiser by donating money for every mile the marchers walked.
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Only 15–25% of Allied soldiers in the Second World War were capable of firing their guns.
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Punching or bombing ideological enemies can validate their persecution story and recruit more followers to their cause.
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Realism is hope grounded in human nature. Cynicism can be the more naive worldview.
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Crisis usually makes people pull together, not collapse into selfish disorder. Misreading that can cost lives.
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Nobody can love all humanity equally. People naturally feel more empathy for nearby victims than distant ones.
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An idea’s most important question is not only whether it is true, but what believing it makes people do.
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Design institutions around hopeful human nature, equality, and people’s intrinsic motivation to contribute.
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Trust should be calibrated: take ordinary precautions against known risks without treating everyone as suspicious.
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When communication is ambiguous, assume good intentions. Most people are decent, so suspicion is usually the worse guess.
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Humans conquered the globe because we cooperate at a scale no other species can match.
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Human beings have both social and selfish sides. Environments and habits train one more than the other.
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Remote artillery and button-pressing make violence easier by separating attackers from victims. Bayonet fighting does not.
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The Holocaust cannot be explained by a Nazi hiding inside everyone. That shortcut erases the complex history of mass violence.
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Believing people are selfish makes hierarchy look necessary: if nobody trusts anyone, powerful authorities must control everyone.

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