Agree with a lot. To the degree that you’re angry or disappointed about humans and the supposedly kindest and/or most rational among them, FWIW things I find sometimes cheering me up are:
When I am sad about greed in the world, reminding myself how miraculous it is that it isn’t/we aren’t even much worse. The fact that very many very intrinsically, albeit maybe somewhat superficially and as long as it seems to come at little direct cost, try to fight for the genuine broader good, is already rather weird given evolution that in many ways directed us to be full greedy egoists. Now you can say we are hideous full greedy egoists but I think it’s true that many want to genuinely do some good, even if, once opportunity arises, often it still tends to be difficult for our brain to resist going the materially more lucrative way.
How flawed I am myself compared to what could potentially be achievable if I was perfect in kindness/altruism.
What if our brain is really a greedy machine, and if you/I/anyone aren’t yet fully corrupted, it’s because under the hood some mechanism overriding our preferences/beliefs simply hasn’t yet figured how we’re really, say materially or so, better off with being full greedy/corrupted, in our individual situations?! This pbly isn’t black/white true, and it isn’t actually improving prospects for the future at all. But at least to me, it somehow makes me feel slightly less angry or so, maybe because it shows how easily I could myself be more corrupted than I anyway am as a human, just depending on the situation I’m in, without ‘me’ (say the conscious me) really having much chance to do better.
Agree with a lot. To the degree that you’re angry or disappointed about humans and the supposedly kindest and/or most rational among them, FWIW things I find sometimes cheering me up are:
When I am sad about greed in the world, reminding myself how miraculous it is that it isn’t/we aren’t even much worse. The fact that very many very intrinsically, albeit maybe somewhat superficially and as long as it seems to come at little direct cost, try to fight for the genuine broader good, is already rather weird given evolution that in many ways directed us to be full greedy egoists. Now you can say we are hideous full greedy egoists but I think it’s true that many want to genuinely do some good, even if, once opportunity arises, often it still tends to be difficult for our brain to resist going the materially more lucrative way.
How flawed I am myself compared to what could potentially be achievable if I was perfect in kindness/altruism.
What if our brain is really a greedy machine, and if you/I/anyone aren’t yet fully corrupted, it’s because under the hood some mechanism overriding our preferences/beliefs simply hasn’t yet figured how we’re really, say materially or so, better off with being full greedy/corrupted, in our individual situations?! This pbly isn’t black/white true, and it isn’t actually improving prospects for the future at all. But at least to me, it somehow makes me feel slightly less angry or so, maybe because it shows how easily I could myself be more corrupted than I anyway am as a human, just depending on the situation I’m in, without ‘me’ (say the conscious me) really having much chance to do better.