Humans are largely good to one another face to face, our most evil things happen when we create systems that allow us to remove the humanity from one another. We also have a tendency to allow only sociopaths and psychopaths to lead us, and we gotta nip that in the bud, but most people who aren’t like that don’t want to lead.
this is how i feel about driving. people arent likely to yell at each other and cut each other off while walking like they are driving. not that it never happens, but when im driving these days theres ALWAYS someone mad asf next to or behind me
This is why I promote the distribution and carrying of pocket horns. We need to have more honking and flipping the bird during pedestrian interactions.
Before the pandemic, I’d see one or 2 highly questionable moves in a drive.
Now it’s like a dozen.
I see people making lefts on red, cutting off semi trucks, weaving in and out of traffic, driving with absolutely no lights at night, and my god the speeding.
A few years ago it was normal to see people doing like 5 miles an hour over the limit, now it feels like half the people want to do 10 or 15, even on surface streets.
I wonder if it’s that most people drove less during the pandemic, the fact that cops around here were told to only pull people over if they were a direct threat to the public, or if the social isolation just made some people way more self centered. But driving has definitely gotten worse since the pandemic.
our most evil things happen when we create systems that allow us to remove the humanity from one another
This alienation is, incidentally, why conscientiousness is more reliable than empathy as a mechanism for ensuring people are good to one another.
Empathy doesn’t scale. It’s possible to have empathy for people that one knows closely, or sees often. But empathy for incidental strangers is harder, and empathy for those one only “sees” abstractly is even harder than that. Empathy isn’t built for extension to millions or billions of people.
Conscientiousness – for example treating people fairly because it’s the right thing to do, as opposed to treating them warmly because it feels good to do so – is actually scalable. You can make a commitment to treating everyone fairly, and then you don’t need to rely on feeling good about a person in order to do right by them.
Related to Dunbar’s number. The human brain is only capable of really recognizing around 100 people as actual people and understanding interactions with them. Everybody else in the world is only a person in a vague, nebulous sort of way.
We also have a tendency to allow only sociopaths and psychopaths to lead us, and we gotta nip that in the bud, but most people who aren’t like that don’t want to lead.
I wouldn’t say “allow”, but either way, you’ve hit the core issue there on both counts - leaders. Hierarchy creates inequality, it’s just how it works. It’s why any cult of personality is dangerous and bound to maintain an imbalance.
Humans are largely good to one another face to face, our most evil things happen when we create systems that allow us to remove the humanity from one another. We also have a tendency to allow only sociopaths and psychopaths to lead us, and we gotta nip that in the bud, but most people who aren’t like that don’t want to lead.
this is how i feel about driving. people arent likely to yell at each other and cut each other off while walking like they are driving. not that it never happens, but when im driving these days theres ALWAYS someone mad asf next to or behind me
You sure you aren’t driving poorly given that it is always someone mad right near you?
This is why I promote the distribution and carrying of pocket horns. We need to have more honking and flipping the bird during pedestrian interactions.
I feel like people got worse on the road after the pandemic. Dunno why, just a feeling I got.
Oh they definitely did.
Before the pandemic, I’d see one or 2 highly questionable moves in a drive.
Now it’s like a dozen.
I see people making lefts on red, cutting off semi trucks, weaving in and out of traffic, driving with absolutely no lights at night, and my god the speeding.
A few years ago it was normal to see people doing like 5 miles an hour over the limit, now it feels like half the people want to do 10 or 15, even on surface streets.
I wonder if it’s that most people drove less during the pandemic, the fact that cops around here were told to only pull people over if they were a direct threat to the public, or if the social isolation just made some people way more self centered. But driving has definitely gotten worse since the pandemic.
This alienation is, incidentally, why conscientiousness is more reliable than empathy as a mechanism for ensuring people are good to one another.
Empathy doesn’t scale. It’s possible to have empathy for people that one knows closely, or sees often. But empathy for incidental strangers is harder, and empathy for those one only “sees” abstractly is even harder than that. Empathy isn’t built for extension to millions or billions of people.
Conscientiousness – for example treating people fairly because it’s the right thing to do, as opposed to treating them warmly because it feels good to do so – is actually scalable. You can make a commitment to treating everyone fairly, and then you don’t need to rely on feeling good about a person in order to do right by them.
Related to Dunbar’s number. The human brain is only capable of really recognizing around 100 people as actual people and understanding interactions with them. Everybody else in the world is only a person in a vague, nebulous sort of way.
I wouldn’t say “allow”, but either way, you’ve hit the core issue there on both counts - leaders. Hierarchy creates inequality, it’s just how it works. It’s why any cult of personality is dangerous and bound to maintain an imbalance.
This mostly focuses on management in the workplace, but applies just as much to leadership rolls in general: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/colin-jenkins-deconstructing-hierarchies-on-the-paradox-of-contrived-leadership-and-arbitrary-p