If you are an American or western European, the world outside of your house, city, county, state and country is a nasty, cruel place. For some of the aforementioned it is as well. Generally though, other people have made it that way for you. I made my living and supported my family by forcing nature, red in tooth and claw, to follow some rules, at gunpoint. I have seen breathtaking things, heartrending things, things that make you despair for the species, and give you hope for the future, sometimes in the same five to fifteen round burst.
Until you have been to forty seven countries, and forty nine of fifty states, and spent some time in the bottom of ditches wondering if you pissed yourself or if that is blood, you might want to check with someone, besides your professor who has been your neighbor his or her whole life, Horatio. Because they have the job doesn’t make them, or the books they wrote correct. Or all our books would be really old right, probably in Greek, maybe ancient Han? Free your mind from the shackles of conformity with either fringe. Be a skeptic, especially of your own fervently held opinions.