Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[emmetb]

Attempting to enforce maximized co-operation is merely to reward manipulators. People will co-operate when they actually believe that supporting other(s)’ goal(s) is also the best way to achieve their own. Demanding altruism is merely sanctimonious twaddle.

I beg to differ, people have a built-in, hard-wired capacity for co-operation, altruism, empathy, love etc. These things are much more than just masqueraded selfish impulses. As a species, as a planet, our survival crucially depends on all these “soft”-values, at least as much as on the “hard”-values. The mere fact that there are these biological traits proves this: otherwise evolution would surely have unburdened us from such excess bagage.

The question about how soft/hard boiled you like your leaders still remains of course. I’m not too cynical in this respect. The higher educated people are, the more they start paying attention also to the “soft”-values. I do believe that the more well-informed, empowered people get. The more they start to appreciate moral leaders. Generally speaking that is.