I hope you and TG will be honest and simply admit that it is a question of practicality, rather than malice, that motivates people to be more upset about their immediate neighbours than they are about people in say Iraq.īut Phil, look at the point made by Sam Harris: (my paraphrasing), the US has certainly caused untold suffering and problems around the world, and in a way this acts as a perfect experiment as to the effect of beliefs on behaviour. What about you – do you spend literally every waking hour being upset about all the people who were murdered in that hour, somewhere in the world? Or do you reserve your emotions perhaps for problems closer to home? So this has nothing whatsoever to do with a kind of racism for others, but everything to do with concern for neighbours.Īlso, I wonder if you think that a man in Pakistan would be upset by the Paris murders compared to being upset about murders in his neighbouring village? But it might not be realistic – it can be painful and difficult enough with a circle extending to only the people you know. If everybody could grow their circle to include everyone in the world, that would be wonderful. It’s just natural human nature to be more affected by people closer to your circle – your circle being your family, then your friends, then your neighbours and people you know, then people in your country and then people all around the world. Just as if you arrived on your street to find your neighbours had been shot dead, it affects you more than if you hear in the background a news report that someone died in a country far away.
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