My Philosophy of Human Nature

The "fight" or "flight" response is supposed to be a quality of only lower animals. Humans are rational beings, supposedly, and do not mindlessly attack or run and hide when threatened. Or do they? Forty years ago, the families in my neighbourhood behaved like animals when they brutalized an immigrant family trying to join the community. Faced with the "unknown", in the form of a family with Muslim background and cultures, they responded with fear and aggression.
I was raised in a small suburban town full of middle-class values. …