What do you think produces inequality in society

[exploited]

Uh, no.

Me:

Stop talking down your nose and pretending you have evolved past everyone else. It is arrogant and unbecoming. You aren't an enlightened snowflake.

Point is, success in every human endeavour requires social skills. Social skills are not distributed equally and cannot be provided to you by others. Even in a society with perfect material and structural equality, so much will be decided upon the basis of good looks, eloquence and body language that political equality is already hugely undermined. We are not a rational animal, and even a perfectly rational social order cannot correct that.

It is a pipe dream. A worthy one, one that should be worked towards, but just a dream nonetheless.

...


Slavery is not built into our biology. Establishing social hierarchies within a group you identify with is. When the vast majority of our decision-making process is non-rational, which it is, it is impossible to have political equality.

Who is your best friend? Why? Did you analyze your friends, compare their attributes, and decide impartially based on facts, not feelings? Of course not. And yet you would do far more to help that friend than you would a stranger, or even another friend. Only a very rare human behaves otherwise, and most often we don't recognize it until they are dead. The same can be said for sexual attraction - people don't say "her nose is perfectly proportional and her skin suggests good breeding grounds." They don't arrive at attraction rationally - it is there, or it's not, and our conscious mind has little to do with it.

Politics is no different. Political decision-making is no different. A very small fraction of what we support is due to rationality. A very large part of it is just a reflection of our temperament and personality, nothing more. Why else do we so often see smart people supporting stupid things? It is because, like all human relations, most decisions are made subconsciously.

[The Dharma Bum]

What does that have to do with anything?

Just because people make many decisions subconsciously it doesn't necessarily imply that it would be impossible to consciously choose a system that promotes and sustains political equality.

It's a matter of political will, and nothing more.

[The Dharma Bum]

Put it this way, is the western civilization one of the most, if not the most, advanced in history because it embraced your concept that increased individual autonomy is detrimental?

Of course not, don't be silly. The opposite is true.

[exploited]

[exploited]

[The Comrade]

[exploited]

[The Comrade]

i'm not white knighting for dharma, we just happen to agree often. i'm not going to bother reposting the same argument as him to the same criticisms either. it'd be redundant. but the victim complex is cute. keep it up.

[The Dharma Bum]

[eynon81]

this thread reminds me of life of brian.

splitters.