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T E Cho

Spot on , Dave.

There are other reasons , most of which you realize.

misery (logically)loves company. Some are not miserable enought yet. This will change.

If you don't have kids, it's easier to accept. You don't have to feel bad for the suffering your kids and grandikids will experience if you have none, so the sum total of misery you expect/caused is less. And less guilt.

Not so many people are even capable of grasping the big picture, it's a special type of thinking and rarer than you realize. It's not that they won't, it that they can't. And I've seen brilliant people in their fields, even with genius IQs, etc. struggle with very broad generalizations. They get an intense furrowed look of concentration, then they say 'who knows' and change the subject. Bobby Fischer had no interests or talents outside of chess, and other
grandmasters could not engage him in any discussions of philosophical matters. And many big picture people can't handle the focused, interrelated details and manipulate the specifics.

Then there's the level of basic self-honesty one can muster.

And many are followers who need to see PhD and fame before they believe or listen. It's how they've been trained all their lives. They've never been granted the belief they can think for themselves, and if society or the better educated espouse beliefs at odds with theirs, they may still be correct.

When times get tougher, societies' structures are seen in greater and greater resolution. it will continue to get more illuminating.

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