"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil."
— Hannah Arendt

Shortly after his is condemned to die, a friend of Socrates bribes the jailor so he can visit the philosopher. "Socrates!", cries the friend. "Let us sneak you out of here to live in exile. The Athenians have done you a great harm." Socrates' reply is unexpected. "It would be a great thing if they were capable of doing me a great harm," he says. "Because then they could also do a great good. But the truth is, whatever they do is the result of chance."

Some people who live, perhaps, too much in their fantasies, often imagine the world run by evil masterminds. From such femi-boy daydreams come most of the superhero stories that dominate the public imagination today, including those insufferable and morally bankrupt "reboots" of Marvel franchises. Imagine if all our problems could be solved by "taking out" a few villians! Where's Bruce Willis when you need him?

I don't buy into this stuff. I believe all the real "villainy" in the world arises from stupidity, incompetence, laziness, ignorance, corruption Well, the list is endless.

Too be sure, stories about malevolent conspiracies are more compelling, even thrilling. But the world I found when I was a young man and went out to explore it — like so many of the "exotic" cultures explored by 19th-century anthropologists — turned out to be dreary, uninspired, or simply lacking in those great heroic motivations we love to read about in fame and fable but which are sadly lacking on those rainy Monday mornings when the boss calls us in for a chat. To put this into psychological terms, the cure for the world is not simply to hire some commandos to stamp out a few evil geniuses, but for a gradual worldwide attitude adjustment. And not the top-down seductions and intimidations offered by coercive political correctness, either. Each one of us needs to dedicate his life to making a personal contribution based on his own perception of his own needs — and his own gifts.

If you want to give this a try, first help the people in your own family. If you can manage that, slowly spread your influece to your community and beyond — being careful to verify your results at each stage using "personality sonar."

Douglas Adams' version of this insight is to discover in the very first episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that the universe is run by an alien species called , which is "corrupt, vile, but not actually evil." The image of Vogons has come back to me repeatedly over many years as a more accurate, and appropriately dreary, symbol for "what's wrong" with our world.

August Compte pointed out long ago that, in the ascent of science, the human mind progressed through magic and metaphysics. These days we refer to these errors as deification ("God" vs. "Satan") and reification ("Good" vs. "Evil"), but it seems that many people are still doing this today. The scientific approach to human knowledge involves letting go of our beliefs in invisible forces and realizing that our insights and skills determine what we think and do.

The world as revealed by science is simply too prosaic for any of these mythological tall tales. There are no shortcuts if we want to decrease what's wrong or increase what's right. Nor can we outsource this job to SEAL Team 6.

So stop day-dreaming, get dressed, roll up your sleeves, and see what you can actually accomplish out there. According to a study by scientists in Israel — who are probably really homely — attractive people favor conformity and self-promotion over creativity and individualism. That completely works into my theory that I have developed at the Luke Burbank Institute which is something I call personality sonar. My theory is that we develop our personalities by saying things and seeing the way they bounce back to us. Like that was funny or that was interesting, or whatever.

If you go through life looking like Angelina Jolie, you're like a bat that can't echolocate. I mean there's just no way you're going to have a realistic read on whether what you say is interesting.

At a bar, if a hot chick says "Look at that wall", guys will fall all over themselves to say, "Tell me more. Uh, huh. It's holding up part of the ceiling. Keep going." It's like, no wonder you don't have a good personality. Nobody's creating a situation where you have to develop a good personality.

I'm essentially standing up for the beautiful people here, guys. Hey, we appreciate it

— (NPR News Quiz, October 20, 2012)