[Extract from a heavily damaged record. Estimated age: 100-200 years post Fracture. Title: Unknown]

Humanity is a truly fascinating creature, one of the few species that embodies the most self-destructive aspects of evolution. Unlike any other non-sentient beast, whose primary directive is to thrive and propagate their species, humanity has a remarkable penchant for the opposite.

We demonstrate endless cycles of devastation and regeneration into a stronger form, a race that is inherently chaotic yet craves order. Inside every society there are always conflicting elements, groups that are disruptive and counterproductive despite the most careful of planning and preparation, and how can there not be?

Even within the most focused of minds there is an eternal flurry of ideas and plans, a veritable cornucopia of possibilities, each mind essentially acting as if it were a biased democracy voting upon these ideas.

In essence every person holds their own city within their own head, which to make it even worse can also be influenced by surrounding minds. How could the resulting chaos ever really be controlled? I’d imagine that ascending to power must be very must like being handed the collar of a frothing hound and being told that it only bites people on Tuesdays.

Except every third week, when it swaps with Monday. Or any time at all if it doesn’t get fed. Wait, sorry did I say Tuesday? I meant Thursday of course.

Throughout history humanity has seemed determined to wipe itself out, and has culled off vast populaces for almost every reason imaginable. Endless battles, stretching throughout the ages varying between scuffles between neighboring cities, up to the flames of war encompassing the entire world.

And for what reason? The greed of a king for his neighbors’ lands, the ambition of prince for his father's throne, the hatred of the different or occasionally simply convenience. But the same aspect has always caused the most terrible of these conflicts though it is generally misunderstood, perhaps intentionally in an attempt to seem nobler than deep down we know that we really are.

The trait found in every leader, in every tyrant, and is simultaneously attractive and repulsive, another of humanities paradoxes. The seventh and greatest of humanity's vices, the ‘sin’ of Pride.

Neither technically good nor evil, pride is rooted in the reinforcement of one's self-righteousness. Often this is true, and as such becomes indistinguishable from justified self-confidence. However when unjustified it begins to present as madness and self-delusion that has lead into the worst of all wars.

Despite all such spurious reasoning, it simply devolves to ‘I am better than they are, therefore I can do what I want’, the rejection of others because they do not fit the standard arbitrarily set. Religious wars are terrible examples of this, the attempted genocide of all who simply don’t ‘believe’ in the same fashion.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Some of the most bitter wars were fought because ‘[Insert Deity Here] is on my side, and therefore I can never truly lose’. Nothing more or less than the rejection of responsibility and rationality.

Unlike almost every other facet of humanity, pride has a unique status rooted in its rejection of the very fundamentals of reality itself. Other characteristics are all focused upon facets based in reality, aka loyalty driven by the belief in another or envy driven by the obsession in another’s possessions.

In fact they wax and wane externally based upon the variable reality, much like owning a thousand gold coins will draw upon others greed more than owning ten. However pride stands apart from this, instead focused and reinforced internally. Both may act as a driving force of similar intensity however, for a lack of a better term, each does not have the same ‘stamina’. Greed weakens, hatred dulls and love dies yet pride remains intact.

It isn’t merely a theory that you can weaken or dissuade, instead it’s a fact in that persons mind. The simple knowledge that just as the sky is blue, you are right, that you are the best in defiance of all evidence to the contrary. In essence it is the difference between believing something is true, and knowing something is true. How do you defeat an enemy who knows they can’t lose?

This refusal to accept reality is not something however that is unique to warmongers and psychopaths; there is a strain of this particular madness within everyone’s psyche.

When standing in a high place, it’s that tiny voice in the back of our minds almost completely drowned out by the rational side, which tells us to jump. Or perhaps it’s the denial of the evidence from one's own senses when presented with something unbearable rather than facing the unpalatable reality.

Blinded by love or loyalty, the willingness to believe an alternative, any alternative, rather than face a reality in which that devotion is betrayed. Utterly against all reason and instinct yet it’s always there, a grain of madness that is part of even the sanest of us.

Yet that very same grain has also been the source of some of humanity’s greatest wonders. Determined by the capacity to perceive and consider in ways that no one else can, dancing the line between utter genius and the babbling of a fool becomes that of a razor's edge. The crucial difference in the end is finding partners for your dance, for if no one else can comprehend then even the greatest of genius becomes no different to insanity in every way that matters.

Honestly the roulette wheel of evolution really does have a lot to answer for. It took a race of rather dim apes and started to blow on the spark of sentience. Countless years of natural selection to permit a creature without teeth, claws, poison or fangs to survive in a jungle full of others which possess those in abundance.

Then one day a solitary specimen picks up a thigh-bone and beats a tiger to death with it rather than becoming dinner…and then stares at its hand as the first wheels begin to turn. Ascension to an apex-predator comes quickly; nothing in history has trumped sapience for as a survival mechanism, at least not for long. But it comes far too quickly for it to adjust properly to the changing environment until it becomes too late.

The advent of science intervenes and the wheel of evolution breaks, leaving us with nothing but broken spokes and a fist full of splinters. Minds of highly emotional beasts, with logic constantly warring with instinct and a body full of a cocktail of drugs designed to alter how we think and react.

Perhaps fascinating is not the correct term after all; maybe terrifying is a more appropriate term for humanity since we did manage to pull off the apocalypse after all, though I suppose even the dumbest of primates could have managed it given how many shots we’ve had at it. The saddest irony is that we weren’t even trying to that time.