>From: Robert Owen <rowen@technologist.com>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
>To: extropiansextropycom <extropians@extropy.com>
>Subject: What if Solipsistic Morality was Normal?
>Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 02:27:39 -0400
>
>To all you budding Solipsists out there, I want to make
>you aware of the danger you may face in case of:
>
>[1] an emergency like a a plane crash, a natural
> disaster that disrupts all logistical systems, a riot;
>[2] a state of total war, probably nuclear, in which all
> social structures and institutions were destroyed;
>[3] your imprisonment whether innocent or not in
> many State and most Federal penitentiaries.
>[4] ---------
>[5] ---------
> |
>[N] ---------
>
>You would immediately become aware that, under
>these circumstances, many people would subscribe
>to your Moral System. You would confront a terrifying
>Hobbesian nightmare where, to your paralyzing dismay,
>you were the prey in the middle of a circle of relentlessly
>advancing human predators, whose prior socialization
>enabled them to see the advantage, as wild dogs do,
>of hunting in packs.
I think many of you don't realy understand the applications of selfishness. Everyone is selfish whether they admit it or not. I'm not going to sit here and play word games. With the boat fantasy you would classify half the world as sociopaths and the other half not.
I make my decisions on a completely selfish bases but that does not mean that I'm going to take the cocunut and throw the other guy over board. If there is a chance the other guy will help in my survival then I will share so that he will be alive to help me. Also since I understand the law of retaliation (I mentioned earlier) I know that I could be or have been that other guy and wouldn't want to face a life or death battle myself. Both senarios are extremely selfish. And to be selfish doesn't classify a person as a sociopath. My definition of a sociopath would be someone who does not feel suffering. A sociopath would not care about another persons feelings because he doesn't care about his own. I'm sure all sociopaths know what harm they are doing to someone and how they feel about it, they just don't care. They do have the ability too though. In the army people are trained to kill without remorse, are we training people to be sociopaths?