Boy, do I expect to be pulled apart by wild dogs (no pun intended) for this one...
I would not dispute the possibility that we are losing our ability to think in abstract terms or to apply logic to our decisions that we make. It may be the result of domestication, meaning that we rarely need to think or plan a way to survive into next week any longer. It may be the result of an intellectual laziness since so much of our work and thinking is done for us by so many others. Maybe it is a combination of both things.
Out of mercy for all, I'll limit this one to a single anecdote to illustrate my point.
In the US, the push to spay/neuter dogs and cats has made it almost mandatory unless one is a licensed breeder. OK, for the most part I get the idea because I too hate to see abandoned puppies.
But look at least at one person gets so taken up by the idea.
When I still was a police dog handler/trainer, we would occasionally look at dogs that people wanted to donate to our agency.
As most dog people know, work dogs must generally be very energetic and have very high play/prey drives. (Those trained to assist the blind are an exception) That is why we buy our dogs from Dutch, Czech, German, Hungarian, etc, breeders.
Due to the fact that we desired very high drives in our dogs, especially those that were being considered for patrol duties, we generally restricted ourselves to taking unneutered dogs (when they were males of course).
One nice lady brought her dog for us to look at. As is the case with most dog owners, her idea of an energetic dog was not the same as ours, so we did not see much in the dog that we needed. Since she took the time to bring the dog over, though, we were giving it fair consideration. At one point, she added "Oh, and he's neutered too". It was clear that she felt that this fact would make our acceptance more likely. I now thought that I had found a polite way in which to tell her that her dog was not what we needed.
I explained the whole idea of desiring intact dogs because they have to possess strong defense drives and have to subdue suspects, etc. She appeared shocked that our dogs were not neutered and asked what would happen if our dogs got loose. I replied that we maintained constant control and did not allow our dogs to run at large. She began to ask the same question repeatedly after each one of my answers "But,.. wouldn't it be better?
The point, which I (as usual) took too long to get to, was that the poor lady was so taken in by the idea of neutering as being some sort or moral requirement for all. She could not even begin to try to consider that there was no need for it in our case or that it would possibly give us undesired results. Here was a very nice person who, at least in this case, clearly had trouble thinking ‘outside the box’ and considering that maybe what is beneficial for most may not work for all.