gradual elimination of all forms of discrimination. It will have begun to solve the work/life conflict -- that is, helped to establish a harmonious combination of these two sides of most people's lives, the absence of which is one of the biggest issues in the search for the elusive 'happiness'. It will have preserved our beautiful and majestic environments and the creatures it harbours into the indefinite future of untold generations. Should we be able to find and communicate with other intelligent beings, it would represent Homo sapiens' gift to the universe. 4 comments: You mean this is what passes for critical analysis on the left. I think I see why we are in such trouble. When a man of Eric's vast experience can't see through Haidt's conservative social Darwinism. Its mind boggling. The idea that passions rule over reason (the elephant over the rider as Haidt would have it) is not some recent scientific discovery - its one of the central themes of moral philosophy (or the Catholic theology of my youth). One wonders whether Haidt, like Sam Harris, even bothered to read any of it. So we good communists should ask themselves 'what sort of society would a creature who is 90% Chimp/10% bee (another Haidt trope) build?'. I imagine it would look at lot like Corporatised US (which Haidt endorses) or Stalinist Russia (which he opposes). Surely we can do better. I think I'd take my chances with a warmed over Catholic theory in which individualism is