Reddit mentions of The Human Zoo: A Zoologist's Classic Study of the Urban Animal (Kodansha Globe)

At least Fundamentalists have some logic to their beliefs, like you say. The OP's parents don't seem to be fundamentalists, I think they're just really bored with their lives and filling the void with whatever exciting religious things they can. Angels exist? COOL!
People invent their own problems when the greater needs of life are taken care of by monthly salaries and routines. It's called the Stimulus Struggle. The Human Zoo is the book where I first learned of this concept. I tried googling it but it's not the same, because google retrieves economic stimulus results. But this is a great insight to psychology, and could help the OP understand his parents better.

It's hard. Food is a bonding experience for humans now. Desmond Morris talks about this quite a bit in The Human Zoo. We have strong rituals around our meal times.

100% agree. There is a great book on this.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Human-Zoo-Zoologists-Kodansha/dp/1568361041

It looks like you have quite a bit of reading to do:

> You mean like free-market capitalism that could work if only there were less regulation? And when that regulation is reduced then the problem shifts to some form of market-intervention elsewhere?

There's a HUGE difference between letting people decide how to regulate their lives, and enforcing strict laws at gun point. Free market doesn't only work, or not, with regulations, free market w/ regulations != free market. That's like me saying, Socialism could work, but only when there are private goods (lawls).

> Is that why it has to be called in every few decades to save Capitalism from the near-constant crises that result from its inherent and unavoidable contradictions? I wouldn't call those "solutions".

Not sure which crises you're referring to, if you're referring to the financial crisis..you mean the planned economy? Save it, the only reason why US isn't listed on there is because technically the Fed is a private company, but let's be honest here... it's pretty much the government's (or shall we say, the gov't is the Fed's? heh). A centralized planned economy is a Socialist concept, granted Marx also did say he favored decentralized, but that's cheating. He might as well said, "Oh yeah, something along the lines of Socialism and Capitalism will work." (Pick a # 1 - 10, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 did I get it?!)

> I agree — Capitalism is quite unnatural.

To an extent, I actually agree with you Socialists in terms of going back to our tribal days without computers and whatnot. Civilization is a dirty concept created by us humans. Personally I'd prefer to go bare in the jungle too, but not everyone will be on board like you and me.
The Human Zoo is an excellent book. Socialism = good if you like swinging on trees, Capitalism = good if you like internet. It all depends on what you want really :)

> Sorry, guess again. And in any case, attacking arbitrary groups of people rather than the argument itself simply does not help you.

Sure, I included arbitrary groups AFTER I attacked the main point, think of it like a "Director's Cut." And for fun, I'll take a guess at what type of person you are.. early 20s, in college, never seen a tax form in their life (besides may be a w-2 in which case even my dog has one of those.. I'd be mildly impressed if you've even seen a 1040 or a w-4).

So not really a strawman, nice try though :)