The way I see it that instinct is the cause behind so much suffering and injustice in the world.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)

That’s a bit of a reductive take on the parent comment.

Sure, but that was my intention, to distill the essence which I think I did fairly well. Was I wrong?

Human nature to cooperate and share is not mutually exclusive with forming in-groups and out-groups.

Agree, but that doesn't mean it isn't in our nature to also cooperate and trade amongst groups rather than default to making enemies. Humans forming groups/tribes etc doesn't imply that those tribes have to have exploitative interactions.

As a maybe silly analogy, thing of two families visiting Disneyland together. They maintain group membership, the parents only buy lunch for their own children, as the other kid's parent's can provide for them fine. But they enjoy the day together, and maybe buy each other treats. Then they go home to their separate homes, to maybe cooperate on another day.

But then think of two families where each has a psychopath that has effectively gained control of the family. Then the Disneyland trip is less likely to happen, especially being fun, even if the rest of the family is the same. Instead, there might distrust, competition, and attempts at exploitation between the families.

Which one of the above scenarios is "human nature"? Both? What's the difference? Resource contention and/or effective psychopaths preventing cooperation IMO (sorry I keep editing).

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Yes. Reductive in a crude way, not clarifying. I don't think the parent comment at all implied humans are inherently bad and the occasional good doesn't matter.

    Rather inversely, humans are tribalistic but achieve good in spite of tribalism.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment