The strange thing is that in the western world internalism is generally associated with conservatism and a bit of a callpous view, expecting people to bootstrap themselves, while the external view is more associated with compassion, egalitarianism, empathy, sharing and political leftism. But this is not necessarily so and I have seen evidence for it not being so.
Specifically, you can see in a lot of places in Eastern Europe people flaunting their wealth more aggressively than in Western Europe, wearing designer brands being more important and so on, clearly shaming people who look poor as unsophisticates etc. Yet the views are very external. Especially being the right place at the right time, knowing the right people, having the right connections and so on. This is something mostly everybody agrees there that they matter most. Externalist views don’t lead to a lot of compassion there.
The point is, the rich in these regions knew perfectly well they don’t really deserved it, they have good connections, are not super hard workers, yet it does not fuel egalitarianism, it fuels much stronger aristocratism than in the West.
I cannot 100% explain why. My best bet is power. If you need to deserve what you have, you are still one of the underpowered proles, the perfect victims who can be exploited by anyone strong. Not needing to deserve what you have is a sign of power. Showing off wealth you got not by earning it but having the right i.e. powerful connections is a demonstration of power.
The point here is, the West thinks there are only two ways of thinking, while there is in fact three. The two the West knows is either everybody baking their own pie (internalist) or everybody getting a slice from a common pie, but how big the slice is depends on power, which is bad, as it is exploitative, and it would be better to have equal power and thus equal slices. However, there is the third view, that the West is unwilling to recognize that it exists, which view is that everybody getting a slice from the common pie, how big is the pie depends on power, which means get as much power as you can, get a big slice, and then happily bathe in their sweet tears of envy ever after. This probably sounds evil. But this is incredibly common in non-Western circumstances, although of course way less directly as I presented it, I wanted to over-emphasize it a bit for shock value to make a point, but it is obviously usually far more subtle. The closest thing the West ever got to understanding this third option is the gangsta, and gangsta-rapper culture: the gold and diamonds people like 50 Cent wear are to demonstrate power, not merit.
My point is this: don’t think you can make the world fairer and more compassionate or more left-wing if you manage to kill the just world fallacy! It could just as well turn more aristocratic or more gangsta-style. In the absence of explaining inequality with merit, people will not necessarily turn to equality, they may as well explain it by power, the power they have: and realize they enjoy flaunting their power around.
Mind-killer warning: politics
The strange thing is that in the western world internalism is generally associated with conservatism and a bit of a callpous view, expecting people to bootstrap themselves, while the external view is more associated with compassion, egalitarianism, empathy, sharing and political leftism. But this is not necessarily so and I have seen evidence for it not being so.
Specifically, you can see in a lot of places in Eastern Europe people flaunting their wealth more aggressively than in Western Europe, wearing designer brands being more important and so on, clearly shaming people who look poor as unsophisticates etc. Yet the views are very external. Especially being the right place at the right time, knowing the right people, having the right connections and so on. This is something mostly everybody agrees there that they matter most. Externalist views don’t lead to a lot of compassion there.
The point is, the rich in these regions knew perfectly well they don’t really deserved it, they have good connections, are not super hard workers, yet it does not fuel egalitarianism, it fuels much stronger aristocratism than in the West.
I cannot 100% explain why. My best bet is power. If you need to deserve what you have, you are still one of the underpowered proles, the perfect victims who can be exploited by anyone strong. Not needing to deserve what you have is a sign of power. Showing off wealth you got not by earning it but having the right i.e. powerful connections is a demonstration of power.
The point here is, the West thinks there are only two ways of thinking, while there is in fact three. The two the West knows is either everybody baking their own pie (internalist) or everybody getting a slice from a common pie, but how big the slice is depends on power, which is bad, as it is exploitative, and it would be better to have equal power and thus equal slices. However, there is the third view, that the West is unwilling to recognize that it exists, which view is that everybody getting a slice from the common pie, how big is the pie depends on power, which means get as much power as you can, get a big slice, and then happily bathe in their sweet tears of envy ever after. This probably sounds evil. But this is incredibly common in non-Western circumstances, although of course way less directly as I presented it, I wanted to over-emphasize it a bit for shock value to make a point, but it is obviously usually far more subtle. The closest thing the West ever got to understanding this third option is the gangsta, and gangsta-rapper culture: the gold and diamonds people like 50 Cent wear are to demonstrate power, not merit.
My point is this: don’t think you can make the world fairer and more compassionate or more left-wing if you manage to kill the just world fallacy! It could just as well turn more aristocratic or more gangsta-style. In the absence of explaining inequality with merit, people will not necessarily turn to equality, they may as well explain it by power, the power they have: and realize they enjoy flaunting their power around.