It doesn’t take a lot to cripple the intelligence of a person or culture. Simple ideas can be shockingly effective. Take, for example, the idea that Justice is a sort of mixture of ‘armed deterrence’, ‘punishment’ and ‘vengeance’.

This single idea is enough to largely destroy the intelligence of anyone in whom it has taken root. It can ruin the intelligence of entire nations, and put the effort of generations to the torch for the sake of aggrandizing itself. How many similar ideological time-bombs do you suppose we acquired from our peers and cultures?