The history of this world and of our lives proves that we humans have a huge capacity for screwing up, a natural tendency toward self-defeating behavior, what Sigmund Freud called “Thanatos”—a universal and innate “death drive.” In one of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “The Imp of the Perverse,” he explores our self-destructive impulses and argues that knowing something is dangerous and wrong can be “the one unconquerable force” that makes us want to do it. How screwed up is that? Echoes of the Apostle Paul’s words that “the law stirs up sin.” We make a habit of running blindfolded on the
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