I can't see that maintaining those requires any expansion of empathy - most of them help my local group. The ones that don't are outweighed by those that do, so it is in my group's interests to maintain the status quo (although attempting to tweak it here and there).
I'd have a harder time arguing about the motivations for the advances themselves, although I'd probably go for something along the lines of delegation of responsibility for decisions to those people who's objectives most align with my own.
Personally, I ascribe my large-scale decisions to an intellectual attempt to improve something large and impersonal (the species, the system, the world) rather than to better the lives of any particular individuals. I can't comprehend that many actual real people, so it can't be empathy. I'm left with 'neatness' and my abstract desire for balanced systems.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 09:27 pm (UTC)I'd have a harder time arguing about the motivations for the advances themselves, although I'd probably go for something along the lines of delegation of responsibility for decisions to those people who's objectives most align with my own.
Personally, I ascribe my large-scale decisions to an intellectual attempt to improve something large and impersonal (the species, the system, the world) rather than to better the lives of any particular individuals. I can't comprehend that many actual real people, so it can't be empathy. I'm left with 'neatness' and my abstract desire for balanced systems.