difference engines. Change is noticed, and engenders fear, because change may be a survival threat. As a result, we are wired to take more notice and spend more time thinking about things that could be survival threats than things that are not.
We forget about good things - IOW they fade from our consciousness - because evolutionarily, it does not enhance our chances for survival to spend lots of energy devising effective ways to deal with past success. Energy use for this purpose competes for the energy required to survive.
We focus on "looking good", because to do so enhances the probability of our individual survival (sex, power, prestige, control).
We pay more attention to evil - because evil is much more often a survival threat than good. Our nervous systems have also extended our attention-focusing-mechanism towards "bad things" in general - not just survival threats.
So, a biological mechanism that was originally focussed on survival has been evolutionarily extended in directions where it now actively works against our happiness. We have to consciously focus on ways to constructively generate happiness, because our biological imperative is to spend our time as paranoid recluses, fretting over whether or not we will recognize the next threat to our existence.
IOW, the ego would rather be in charge of a dungheap, than share power in paradise.
The only way out of the ego's trap is to be consciously aware of what the ego is - and consciouly create a personal way-of-thinking which enables and rewards efforts that enhance fulfillment. And then, from empowered individual, extend that ability into empowered community.
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