The U.S. Constitution is predicated on the presumption of probity–that the natural person is good. This conflicts with the presumption that the individual is born bad and must be saved. So, if religion does not work, then governments are instituted to correct him. The latter, of course, justifies coercion.

The American delusion is a falsification nvented to coddle incompetents, an incompetence that is endemic, but probably not genetic. Rather, the incompetence arises fron an abusive upbringing. We do need to address the prevalence of child abuse.

On the other hand, perhaps incompetence is merely a variant or consequence of insecurity and the insecurity is derived from flawed perception, rather than an abusive environment. In either case, there seems to be an absence of what we call common sense and, instead of learning from experience, the impaired individual is governed by a pervasive sense of fear. Incompetence may just be the consequence of the impediment inposed by fear.

Of a person’s behavior is consistently governed by fear, then expecting that fear will modulate the behavior of others is entirely consistent.Conservatives are fixated on the fear of punishment, rather than punishment itself. That the heedlessly instinctive have no fear does not cross their minds.

The benefit of having people controlled by fear is that they are largely inactive. Do nothings. Does that means wee should or should not fear fear? If fear is an endemic constant, our response to it is irrelevant.