the ideals presented here sound very American, and a bit cold, but that doesn't mean they don't have merit. There is no purpose in life other than to pursue one's own self interest, to live freely and make the most of every second. However, there are few cases in which a person's interests don't include goodwill towards others and a general motivation to get along. Societies have existed for some time now, and so empathy is a fundamental part of the psyche. in fact, wild man is dead and forgotten. Societal peoples driven by unity encountered wild man driven by pursuing just his own interests and happiness, and in an ironic twist of fate they wiped him off the face of the earth or made him do work for them. Those who lived absolutely free soon learned that they were defenseless, and ended up in absolute slavery.

So as societies continue to develop, the carefree nature of the wild man slips farther and farther from human memory, replaced with ideals of love and goodwill towards men, even if it means sacrificing no small amount of personal freedom. In this transitionary stage, we are together at a superficial level, our feelings of mutual acceptance surpressed by various forces, our want of personal freedom suppressed by even greater forces. We are all alone together, neither free to roam the metaphorical gardens of eden nor unified by universal human understanding, caught in limbo between our love of each other and our love of ourselves. Feeling two ways at once as we always do, there is no perfect system and no single definition of happiness; the world in which we are trapped is our own to explore and understand, but only as far as the times will allow.

And I just got a really weird Deja vu.