I think in all of what you wrote, the idea of social conditioning is left unacknowledged which is an essential addition to a discourse like this. Especially if the topic being mainly discussed is politics as decades of conditioning has altered our perception and expectations of what a government needs to do and the people working inside of the system.

For me personally, I believe the majority of human nature at its fundamental level is pure, innocent and good. Corruption starts with the attachment of an ego which is an entity that embodies protocols, decisions, virtues, values, wants and (perceived) needs. This is the construct that you are addressing in the article on a much larger scale.

Take poverty for instance. We can be ingrained at an early age to feel needy and lacking in self worth because we do not have enough resources. This can branch off to other attributes of our personalities and produce “filters” that work like confirmation bias which then is attached to the “ego” causing a particular outlook on self and society.

To really explore what you’re brushing up against (the impact of conditioning and the importance of precision in language) you would have to scale it down to the individual and deconstruct the argument by exploring the human condition from the ground up.

Truth is relative, certainly, but I believe until we all carry an unambiguous definition of certain ideas and values, we’re going to always rub against certain people the wrong way despite the intentions involved.

Just like in your apple analogy, we all have to agree that the apple envisioned is exactly the same from person to person. I think much of our confusion and strife comes from the lack of a cohesive and shared vision; which wreaks havoc when notions of government and policy is being debated.

Good article. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: I think human nature is partly created by external factors. Certain values and beliefs do not have to be taught to children, such as murder being wrong, for instance. For the most part, we are born with that Truth in mind and certain others that we unconsciously adhere towards until the ego convinces otherwise.