I have come to the conclusion that people’s actions are not as much a function of their character or personality as it is a function of their beliefs.

Under Nazism, even the better people behaved in horrible ways because they were practicing a horrible ideology. When that ideology was dispensed with, these same people created a beautiful, peaceful and prosperous country that has exercised a positive role in world affairs. It is unlikely that the whole population changed its character in short time between one and the other. What changed was their beliefs.

We see some interesting things with feminism. There was one form of feminism in 1960s and 1970s, and completely another in 1990s. The first cultivated the character of compassionate, generous and free-spirited hippie idealism.. The second cultivated the character of the harpy. The same people were involved in both. Once again, their innate character did not change; what changed was their beliefs.

I have watched the same people act in completely different ways depending on what they believed. I have found that the people who were caught in the ideology of survival and competition became mean and were always freaking out. This is the case with even the best people. When they no longer had those beliefs, the change in behavior followed.

People’s actions are therefore a function of things that drive their behavior. A vast amount of behavior is owed to beliefs. Which means that to correctly impact upon people’s behavior it is necessary to work with their beliefs.

How much of people’s actions is character and how much it is belief? And how do the two relate to each other? What is the seed and what is the soil? What is the relationship between nature and nurture?

These questions need to be asked across the board so that insight be achieved.