Why don’t we want a better world?

When I was a young man, a teenager even, listening to Bill Hicks and getting mind blown high on weed, it seemed like all the world's problems could be solved if people, well, stopped being dicks. Ignorance, sadism, fear, etc all seemed like choices people make, and we could all just make better choices.

Then I got a little older and did a degree and travelled and learned about all the complex difficult curly bits, and it seemed like, wait no, it’s actually this really hard puzzle, and we have to fiddle and fix and work through all the details.

Then I get to the part where, on some issues at least, important ones, I had done the work and thought through the steps and phases and obstacles and approaches, the points of friction and the possible lubricants.

Then I realised I was right the first time. The blockers aren't practical or logistical or even properly political. The blockers are emotional, psychological and cultural.

It would be easy to stop climate change, to end hunger, stop war, to elevate the arts, to give people more time to themselves and with their families, to "explore space, both inner and outer" as Bill would have put it. It *would* be easy, if that's what we wanted to do.

Why don't we want to?