Top Highlights

• Ironically, scummers also believe—contradictorily, as they hold many of their beliefs—that they are truly independent. This is self-deception, of course, like the self-deception of teenagers who think that they show independence from their parents by condemning their families—while in fact their entire existence is dependent on the family.
• This attitude is self-deceptive and viciously ungrateful. People cannot succeed—or even survive—by themselves but only through cooperation with others. If you ever held a job, the person who gave it to you chose you over someone else. If you ever started a business—even if it eventually failed—someone probably gave you a break during the early goin...
• Archeology, oral tradition, history, and natural philosophy all agree that one the earliest acts of human beings was to come together—first as families, then as small bands, then as tribes, villages, and cities. Human beings have always been social. Why would this happen if we could live perfectly well on our own? Why would we join together if we c...