Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[Rezwan]

emmetb wrote:
The most important social skill is altruism. The ability to identify with others that are far removed from yourself. How wide a circle are you willing to draw?

That’s true. At the same time, the Almighty, in his infinite wisdom seems to have generated a lot of self-interested people and this has very practical results.

Have you ever wanted to do something and the people around you are all trying to be accomodating. “No, what do YOU want to do?” “No, YOU!” “I’m happy with whatever YOU want to do.”

What I like is to know true preferences of the people around me, and I’d like them to be responsible for expressing that. Then we can negotiate the best outcome.

I think what’s going on is each person has within then the instinct for individual self-interest and meta-collective-interest. These manifest in each person in different ratios. Both have practical value.

‘s the way I see it.