Your argument is reductive, a bit llike the bollox spouted by neo-liberals about competition and the (misquoted) ‘survival of the fittest’ and society. HUmans socially organise for individual selfish gene type reasons but here’s also an intellectual element to humans which has resulted in a range of moralities. In the northern and western hemispheres particulalry but not exclusively, being nice to each other (extending to altruism rarther than purely transactional behaviour) and the planet is seen as morally superior to the counter as it is a mesure of civilisation and enlightment. HTH.
HAH! The only reason why we developed a sense of morality is because as soon as we started wielding weapons such as rocks and sharpened sticks, the playing field between the males were leveled to a considerable extent. Strength no longer mattered as much as a rock to the back of the skull in the night, hence social groups were forced to co-operate with each other more. Altruism is simply an evolutionary behavior to increase co-operation within the in-group. Outer group individuals still tend to be subjected to the most base of human instincts as highlighted in the comments of this rather lovely article.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2810717/Britain-refuses-help-immigrants-adrift-Mediterranean-encourage-flee-North-Africa.html
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJTfFt7xknw[/video]
Still, I consider myself a humanist, I like helping people who need it….it’s just that I take a disappointed/pitying view of most of humanity.
Just returning to selfish interest – if what are you suggesting is short term rape and pillage then that is contrary to selfish interest anyway as an integral part of the earths ecosystem if it fundamentally changes, is unable to support us, we will expire. But then you knew that anyway.
and I refer you to –
Why give a damn apart from having a habital enough planet to live on with enough greenery and fluffy animals to make us go “ooooh look that’s nice”. There’s no moral or ethical reason to care beyond that, nature is a callous mistress that never asked humans whether or not we actually wanted to live in it with a high degree of awareness in regards to our own suffering.
In the northern and western hemispheres particulalry but not exclusively, being nice to each other (extending to altruism rarther than purely transactional behaviour) and the planet is seen as morally superior to the counter as it is a mesure of civilisation and enlightment. HTH.
Are you saying that Asians don’t have a culture of being nice to each other? I think Buddhism and Hinduism would disagree with that, Islam to an extent as well if you leave out the beardy explosion prone types.