So, do we know what decides if a person develops to become more greedy, agressive and selfish while another becomes altruistic and doesn't care much about wealth and power?
"my, my! humans! so aggressive."
rape, murder, nukes, war, torture, power, seemingly unlimited greed...
why don't i have that insatiable drive?
can't all be how i was raised, can it?
do you know of any studies or philosophical insights?
thx! 🙂
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I have awful impulse control (severe ADHD) but usually I just eat an entire packet of Oreos instead of exploiting people for selfish reasons.
Imagine you were filthy rich and a country had all Oreos and would ban all exports and tourists. Sure you wouldn't bribe a minister or two? Give a poor kid some money and exploit them to build an over the border Oreo smugglers ring ...?!
That kind of comes down to values, though. Does a person value Oreos over honesty and integrity, or do they just enjoy Oreos? Someone might also enjoy most foods, they might prefer to fence, or they might prefer to knit.
TBH if I was filthy rich, I would help my loved ones, keep a decent retirement savings (reasonable), and then probably give the rest away. I would feel pretty bad keeping that kind of money if I knew that other people were starving and homeless. Happier people make for a better society too, imo.
That's exactly the kind of long-term thinking to which lead exposure is deleterious.
Err, yeah, I wouldn’t do that, I’d just buy some other kind of snack!