Great post! I think it's worth pointing out that the Hobbesian "nasty, brutish and short" conception of humanity is not simply anachronistic -- it's blatantly wrong , and increasingly contradicted as we learn more about human evolution. You can see glimpses of this even in the writings of Kropotkin and more modern conceptions of our cooperative evolution. I've recommended it before, but I highly recommend reading Matt Ridley's "The Origins of Virtue" -- a good popsci summary of this stuff that encompasses the best of Dawkins' selfish gene stuff (and more).