Utte

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Human Behaviour

Selfishness

I think we are animals that has come from evolution and therefore we are basically selfish. This does not mean that we should be rude or not help others when we have the opportunity but finally we put ourselves first. I think this goes equally for movements cherishing unselfishness (like socialists and christians), they just live in different levels of denial and double standards. One theory is also that they try to make people feel guilty about their selfishness so that they can gain control over them. Instead I think we should accept it and not declare it immoral (or sinful) that we ultimately are selfish animals. I also think that is the reason the capitalist economic system works much better than the socialist system, everyone works for themselves instead than for some abstract common good that never will materialize.

Altruism

Even though we are basically selfish animals I think there are some altruistic behaviours that has emerged from evolution. For example to exchange altruism (you scratch my back I scratch yours). Altruism towards relatives to protect your own genes. There might also be some altruism towards other humans since that protects the genes against other species. The flip side of this could possibly be the fear and hatred that sometimes exist between different groups. The evolutionary altruism is one within groups I think, and it has probably been an evolutionary advantage for a group to expand by beating other groups and people who are different. Possibly explaining why groups with strong emphasis collective thinking and on how good they are, religions, socialism and nationalism, often behaves badly against others.

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