I offer you "...this picture of the human species, liberated from all chains, freed from the empire of chance, as from that of its enemies of progress, and marching with firm and sure steps on the road of truth, virtue and happiness..."

Name	Marquis de Condorcet
Life	1743 - 1794
Country	France
Category	Idealism
Wikipedia	>>

Central to this fabulous optimism of Condorcet was his firm belief in man's "free will" and his hate of all thoughts of any "determinism" for man. Écrasez l'infame, Condorcet had internalized Voltaire's wish to crush religion. In getting rid of a God, who for ages had kept men in religious fetters, Condorcet came to believe that man was free of all fetters. In throwing off all metaphysical beliefs in Gods, Destiny or Nornes, man's "free will" was totally unbound. He was free to create the perfect, good and just society. It is a bit ironic that Condorcet himself drowned in the first wave of modern chasing after that strong wind, called freedom! For 200 years many a "modern" man has lived with this intoxicating idea that when you get rid of religion, there are no restrictions left upon man's "free will". It is a very dangerous idea! God can be understood as a summary name for all of Nature. Human Nature can be understood as a summary name for those perhaps 140,000 genes in which our inheritance is given to us at birth. This mainly animal nature forces us unconsciously to repeat a behavior that results in gaps between rich and poor, in spiteful arrogance in the rich and in revolutionary envy in the poor. Open-minded men, such as Heraclitus and the Greek tragedians, have long observed the regularities in history. They explained them with Gods or Destiny. We should observe that these regularities have remained, even after Voltaire and Condorcet. Who dares deny the existence of huge gaps in power and wealth, of arrogance and envy, of revolutions and wars, also after 1794! "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

but in ourselves, that we are underlings", said Shakespeare 200 years before Condorcet. Cassius and Condorcet shared the belief - beloved by the young - that if we only could rise from "underlings" under Stars and Gods, we could ourselves become omnipotent Masters of our own destiny, shaping it after our own "free will". Now, genetic research is giving us new fetters. It is hinting that our animal inheritance may be equally strong as any metaphysical powers. Do genes replace Gods in determining our destinies? Do genes pre-determine new waves of arrogance and envy, exploding into new revolutions and wars? That is a rather important question for man's future! And yet, almost everybody hates that formulation of it. Almost everybody shares Condorcet's dislike of determinism, be it from Gods or genes. Why? Because many of us dream of becoming heroes, even Saviors of some sort. Because none of us want to give up the hope that we so may become! The poor, in goods or intelligence, want to keep their hope that one day, perhaps after death, they, too, will become rich and powerful. If you tell them that there are biological rules that make all mammals, including man, live in hierarchical societies - which is the case - and that the probability is high that they will stay at the bottom, you rob them of hope and they hate you. The rich, in wealth, power or intelligence, love to believe that they have come to the top thanks to their own hard work and "free will". If you tell them that they were born with strong genes for energy, ambition and intelligence, along with a genetic spirit of "courage", today given the name of "entrepreneurship", and that these genes have pre-determined their success in life, you rob them of their right to praise and honour, and they, too, hate you. From the bottom to the top, they all shout ecrasez l'infame, crush any idea of hateful determinism robbing us of our "free will". Also the new biological one! And yet, the regularities seem to remain! Why?