| | JoRo sez:
But take the rational self-interest as being what's really moral. While people may adopt a lot of the behaviors (productivity, integrity, etc.), there's a huge obstacle with them accepting that those are moral. They may say "You should do that", but I don't think they'll pick up "It's moral to do that."
That kind of revolutionary change is going to be a tough one. I can't imagine it being picked up in the same way those less fundamental ideas are. This would require explicitly making a major choice. They'd have to recognize that they're bucking the trend.
Joe, it starts with God. That debate is becoming louder every day. That's the revolution and it's happening. And it's going to be ugly. I don't know that mankind will survive it (and I'm an optimist).
Slowly people are being cornered into considering the existence of supernatural stuff. We considered it early. Existentialists have pressed the issue for years without offering a positive ethical alternative to go with it. And that's where the ugliness comes in. The world believes that no happy ethic can replace altruism. And as bad as altruism is it's better than nihilism. At least we can co-exist with altruism. Nihilism is bad news and that's what I see as the lazy generation's new philosophy.
The story doesn't have an ending, of course. It could play out in a number of ways. I do think people will see that most of mankind's problems have been solved by Capitalism and Reason. But it's impossible to know if it'll happen fast enough or be large enough.
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