Better People
I think one of the traits that helps define me is I think things can be better. Our best days don't have to be behind us, they're ahead of us. Not just individually, but as a world. Instead of looking back to the idealized past, and seeing how things have just been downhill since whatever perfect Golden Age, the Golden Age is an idea, for the future. Something to work toward.
Improvement is possible. I don't know about human perfectibility, but we can certainly be better people. Most of civilization may still be a thin veneer over the caveman mind we evolved with, which lies atop the monkey mind, which lies atop the lizard mind, but that doesn't mean we can't try to be better. And actually be better. And then our kids can be better, and their kids better, and so on. People will still fundamentally be people, but maybe we can all just be a little bit better.
Improvement is possible. I don't know about human perfectibility, but we can certainly be better people. Most of civilization may still be a thin veneer over the caveman mind we evolved with, which lies atop the monkey mind, which lies atop the lizard mind, but that doesn't mean we can't try to be better. And actually be better. And then our kids can be better, and their kids better, and so on. People will still fundamentally be people, but maybe we can all just be a little bit better.