octavia butler lists the basic human traits that catalyze our nasty tendencies into nasty behavior: ignorance, fear, disease, hunger, suspicion, hatred, war, greed, and vengeance.

amid all this, does tolerance have a chance? only if we want it to. only when we want it to.
tolerance, like any aspect of peace, is forever a work in progress, never completed,
and if we're as intelligent as we like to think we are, never abandoned.

octavia butler