Aquitaine
Well-Known Member
I agree with Ego being the main motivator. We can survive with an ego, however the Ego as it is forms part of the body-mind complex which (when believed in) causes us to think we are an individual in a world full of other individuals.
We take ourselves as individuals with a limited life span i.e. a mortal body. This belief in the body and our eventual death drives us to require security (for the body) and that comes from possession and gain. We must ensure we have food, health, security and longevity. This from the body-perspective must come from outside oneself. Uncontrolled desires result in greed, lust, and other extremes which have knock on effects. We continue to look outside ourselves for better houses, better food, more security. So we put up CCTV, lock our doors, go to war in the name of preventing a worse war and eventually commit atrocities on one another in the name of self-preservation i.e. keeping our body, our family, our nation alive.
On a lesser scale people invest in pensions, insurance, perhaps even in children to help when they grow old. The clock is ticking... is that a grey hair I see?
EDIT, exactly...
But a lot of nations and their Rulers don't go to war to protect their Citizens, and do commit atrocitie to their own people - totally against the idea of survival. The Rulers have all the Wealth they need, and no threat to their own survival, yet the continue to do such things.