Self-Serving Doesn't Work
We evolved to know this, but now pretend it does
Humans are not inherently self-serving. But it seems that once agriculture allowed our tribes to grow big and anonymous enough to get away with it, and even get celebrated for it, self-serving became attractive to some.
I’m not sure whether that segment of the population has lost some degree of the generosity and selflessness that were hardwired into humanity by natural selection (see the 10,000 year Explosion), or if it is just a confused compensatory reaction to the pain that our disconnected modern world deals out. I suspect the latter.
Either way, it’s hard to know what to do about it. Billionaires aren’t going to easily give up their spoils, and since they write the laws and now have the most frightening power of surveillance ever created, it’s gonna be tough. Even though a much more fun and connected (not to mention safe and sustainable) world awaits them too.
I think the best shot we have is to stop celebrating wealth. Filthy wealth should frighten and disgust, not intrigue and excite. Similarly, wild fame should concern us too. Wealth and fame make life harder. Sure, it’s nice to be seen and admired, but it’s far, far, far, far, far, far more important to be loved. Wealth and fame make it harder to establish trust and connection, and so find real love. Not impossible, I imagine, but I would never wish either on anyone I love. Even great beauty can make life hard. These things open doors for sure, but they shut other, more critical ones.
Society doesn’t need billionaires to create incentive. Attention and appreciation alone will always have the power to get us to do everything humans need to do. But it does create wild inequity and injustice, which destroy our cooperative superpowers.
It’s time to stop centering ourselves around position and notoriety and relearn how to make friends and build local, loving, reliable social circles that need us as we need them. And we’ve got to stop thinking there is anything ultimately good about individual riches and power.
Seems like you've been channeling Lao Tzu
"Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?
If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself.
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you".
Tao Teh Ching #44 (Stephen Mitchell translation)
So many good thoughts and sentences here, David. And the cartoons are always icing on the cake.