RE: Comfort forgone: Sharing suffering in a gift economy
It is not human nature to be greedy, it is human nature to cooperate for growth. It is the maximizing of the self over the community that is unnatural as it is this that limits future opportunity.
This is debatable. We are selfish in nature. We don't do anything without it being of some benefit to ourselves, even if that benefit is just to feel good about ourselves because we were nice. Our situations dictate how our benefits come to us. If we depend on the community, then we will maximise the community above ourselves or risk being ousted and on our own. However, if we are not dependant upon the community, but can gain something from it without having to make an input, then many people would happily take that opportunity and when it's no longer available then they have gained without a loss.
We only need to cooperate for growth, if we don't already have the means to grow on our own. Since communities have pretty much been lost we have turned into a world of everyone for themselves. It seems we now see more of the worst of human nature in this modern, disconnected world.
I was going to write a post Selflessness and other lies, maybe later. Selfish yes, greedy no. It is in our own best interest to cooperate, especially here, and especially now. in the foundational stages.
I don't see this as nature as much as engineering and programming. we have essentially forced our nature into submission through disconnection from a community. As social animals, disconnection fro community is unnatural.
I would posit that it is how our nature reacts to not being in our natural setting. When we work together we work from a stand point that we know we will have each others backs. When you don't have that support you're probably more inclined to hoard what you have in case of bad times and grab as much as you can, when you can, to add to the stockpile. If you think of someone who is fending for themselves it makes sense. What we currently have is instead of being physically alone, we are surrounded by people we don't know or trust. On here they are faceless too. I wonder if the greedy ones even acknowledge other people beyond their grab for riches.
Perhaps this is correct but again, the core is still an engineered environment issue that hacks our hardwiring. It is like advertising useless products in a compelling way.
I would assume ignorance or, justification allows them to do it.