We so routinely see hateful people sheltered from consequences--heck, even aided in the harm they do, by others who want to ride the wave of power, or who don't know how to "get off the bus"--that it's mystifying how we manage to be so hard on ourselves in our more quotidian struggles.
But then again, it feels like it should be a low bar not to do the harm that genuine grifters and hatemongers do.
In a better world they wouldn't be at the centre of every public conversation about moral action.
I have often thought about shame, and ostracizing, as the cultural regulator for this. But it so often misused. That I don't think it is applicable today.
As with so many things, cultural regulation has disappeared. We need to bring back constraints as a virtue.
@corlin @MLClark Cultural regulators don't exist when your social fabric has broken down - which is the case in much of the West due to a combination of hyper-individualist mindsets (no doubt spread in large part by Cold War propaganda), an extremely isolating car-centric transportation/infrastructure paradigm that eliminates opportunities for natural social interaction, overwork robbing many people of the time/energy to socialize, and the two-income household norm reducing informal networking.
Yes all factors.
But perhaps, and I am just thinking aloud here, these factors all point to some more fundamental causes. What led to these culture factors developing and succeeding in the first place?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6V0qmDZ2gg&list=PL3VaCuWY1hJlNQ6a2PDd4Ib1kSxUAiflF
@corlin @MLClark They were intentionally fostered.
The hyper-individualism epidemic was caused largely by Cold War efforts to reduce sympathy for the USSR and harden the population against subversion.
Car-centric transportation and infrastructure paradigms were borne of auto industry lobbying, itself driven by the desire for more profits and successful because of corruption.
Overwork is a result of the intentional devaluation of labour by the bourgeoisie...
Yes.. All true...
But think deeper.
Why were these factors so successful?
It must be more than these intentionally fostered, cultural shifts.
Yes.
And think neurologically.Think mind body dualism. Think the enlightenment, and the rise of rationality.
@corlin @MLClark Right off the bat: I'm not sure I agree with their statement "There's no planetary boundaries as a result of the activity of deer or algae or oak trees."
Actually, algae were responsible for an *enormous* mass extinction known as the Great Oxidation Event. From the perspective of most of the species present at that time, algae smashed straight through planetary boundaries like they weren't even there.
Those boundaries are at least partially defined subjectively.
@corlin @MLClark Rationality in and of itself is not selfish.
The advancement of life has always been through increasing cooperation/coordination of ever-larger systems; first prokaryotic cells, then composite eukaryotic cells, then microscopic multi-cellular life, then macroscopic multi-cellular life, then vertebrate multi-cellular life, then simple social multi-cellular life, & finally the likes of us.
The logical end-state of life is probably something like the Borg - a colossal collective.