We actually aren’t that greedy and selfish when it comes to our immediate family or even a bit extended than that - our “tribe” if you will.
This makes sense. If your tribe thrives, you thrive. So you rub the back of those that rub your back.
But this kind of selflessness does not scale to the group sizes of modern society. People living in the same village or tribe before modern society would happily help a neighbour cause they know they may one day need the help of that neighbour themselves. People of today couldn’t care less about helping the people that surround them, cause people rarely live the same place for too long and you interact (greedily and selfishly) with an immense amount of people who you do not consider your “tribe”.
My point is that we are highly selective about who to be generous towards, and evolution definitely selected for that.
We actually aren’t that greedy and selfish when it comes to our immediate family or even a bit extended than that - our “tribe” if you will.
This makes sense. If your tribe thrives, you thrive. So you rub the back of those that rub your back.
But this kind of selflessness does not scale to the group sizes of modern society. People living in the same village or tribe before modern society would happily help a neighbour cause they know they may one day need the help of that neighbour themselves. People of today couldn’t care less about helping the people that surround them, cause people rarely live the same place for too long and you interact (greedily and selfishly) with an immense amount of people who you do not consider your “tribe”.
My point is that we are highly selective about who to be generous towards, and evolution definitely selected for that.