At least part of the problem is that there are too many of us crammed too close together. We are simply hard-wired to recognise every face we see every day. When we don't, when we see strangers every day, the good old reptile brain puts us on permanent Yellow Alert, just short of battle stations. We're not meant to live that way, but the ones who relish conflict and domination can have a high old time!

In our 'natural' state of small (100-200 individuals), spatially-separated communities living in a defined territory, things would be much better. Everyone is needed, everyone plays a part and troublemakers cna be indentified and dealt with. Strangers are rarely encountered, and not in large numbers. Otzi - The Man in the Ice -was clearly a traveller, but probably one of a known group of individuals 'allowed' to travel between groups for purposes of trade. He'd be known in the places he went and not seen as a threat.

What worries me is that if Covid, Son of Covid or climate change actually complete the natural culling of our over-successful species, we'll still insist on building the largest comunities possible instead of spreading out.