Steven,
I read your post carefully. I'm not sure I can agree that humans are inately good. Barbarism always seems close to us. I once watched a celebratory concert turn into a riot down a city mainstreet. It happened in a matter of minutes; peaceful concert to widespread rampage. Decent-looking sober young boys and girls were smashing shop windows and stealing stuff. Cars were turned over and set alight.
It seems more likely that there is a strand of chaos/mob behavior within us all, than that some malign influence somehow caused all these otherwise law-abiding people to turn into thieves and rioters.
However, I have no idea whether it matters to the job market in Southern California!
regards
j.R
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
