That is the interesting thing about our species, where as all other species are generally good, we posses the capacity to be either good or evil. Most people believe we are naturally good. Being the realist that I am sad to say that I disagree. I believe people are inherently evil and must strive to be good. Hence the reason many "innocent" children torture insects.

Please don't take that statement the wrong way, it is only my view of things.

Na, I believe people are naturally good, only become evil when they are scared, frightened or there is something
medically wrong with them.

Yet, humanity tends to repeat patterns.

The creation of the Avro Arrow, what I hate about history is the decommissioning of the Arrow program due John Diefenbaker choosing the missile program instead of or what would have been the most advanced aircraft in the word

This debate has been ongoing for a couple of millenia. Are human naturally good and perverted by society or are they wild animals at heart on which society builds a more or less thick layer of morality ? Considering how destructive our species is, I tend to opt for the second school of thought.

I meant things like your dead pet coming back to haunt you for not feeding it...

Assuming that big cats are similar in nature to domestic cats I'd say no, some wild animals are assholes. Not to mention that ravens, some of the most intelligent animals out there, enjoy sadistic behaviour. You can actually find lots of videos of ravens harassing other animals just for fun. I presume that finding joy in all sorts of seemingly non-sensical activities, including truly perverted ones, just comes along with a certain level of intelligence in a species. :P

Sounds familiar, think I read that in texts of some religious cult.

I think some apes have been found trapping other members of their clan for no other reason than rivalry. Lemurians wage inter-clan warfare. So maybe moving up the evolution tree left us with an ability to be ruthless and reckless( just like going up the management tree ) and a need to educate ourselves beyond this to avoid exctinction...
Death is actually the solution to all problems.

Lot's of animals and insects are assholes.
Cat's will kill/play with anything they can.
Some birds (Bluejays is what I had in mind) will attack animals and even people for no reason, not to mention birds like taking a shit on my vehicle after I just washed it. Couldn't they drop the load a few feet (meter) one way or the other to avoid that, no they are assholes.
Spiders like to make spiderwebs in front of places I like to walk, thus I squeal like a little girl when I walk into the spiderweb.
Even the common house fly likes buzzing the shit out of me when I'm trying to watch TV or fall Asleep (happened to me last night).

Giggles, very good.

My favorite thing about history is that it's our collective story as a race. Loads of characters, plot twists, war, intrigue, discoveries, etc., there's something for everyone. Although it can get a little depressing sometimes. If history was given a genre, it would probably be epic tragedy (if that is a genre). It's like that quote from Voltaire: Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

But it is still incredible to look back thousands of years of civilization, and feel a connection to the people that came before us. Even though they lived in entirely different ages, there are still timeless fears, desires, goals that bind us. Makes me think I might have been happier with them, in a different day and age, than this one.

The crash of the "Weimarer Republik" (germany 1919-1933) and the following situation is in my opinion the scariest thing ever happend...

Oh, and I really like "classic" history dealing with romans and greeks!

Do you get the H2 channel? Thats where they moved all the history programs to.

I wish everyone, especially leaders, studied a significant amount of history. Cause it is amazing how often it gets repeated. You would think eventually people would learn. "Hmm, this situation developing is awfully similar to X event back in 1XXX, maybe we should look at what happened back then and develop a plan on how to move forward" This rarely seems to be the case though.

Regarding animals, I watched a nature program about lions-two male lions attempted to take a pride away from the old male leader. They failed, but while the one intruding male was fighting the pride leader, the other male "raped" a pride female. I think a female in a pride wouldn't willingly submit to an outsider male which is probably why they used the term rape.

Animals aren't much different from humans since humans are just animals who got lucky in evolution.