Quote:I serve a greater purpose
No, ultimately friend and foe go extinct and the planet and sun die and there is no record of the good or the bad that evolution produces.
You cant serve a greater purpose, you can only make life the purpose you chose for yourself. A less loaded and emotional way of saying what you said would be.
"When my ride ends, can I leave this house better than I came into it so the next generation has it at least as good or better"
"Greater purpose" no such thing never was, never will be. But when we say something like "The greatest generation, meaning the soldiers of the allies that defeated Hitler" It still wont long term be a given that this nation will stand, in fact boarders have never remained the same and powers shift. The Chinese have for thousands of years shared the same region, but they no longer have monarchies even if they have the same cultural memes and superstitions.
What made the Allies great, wasnt an infinite ideology that would last forever, to me what they did was evolutionary, it appealed to the positive side of evolution in protecting the desire of individual freedom. Wild animals don't like to be caged and humans don't like to be oppressed.
But Hitler also thought he was doing the "nobal" thing. The dark side of evolution also produces alpha males that seem to do a good job of keeping things in line. Evolution also produces subordinites who look to that alpha male for leadership.
Maximizing benifit and minimizing harm is the only "greater purpose" and both sides thought they were doing that, but the allies appealed to our evolutionary desire to be free. The Nazis were wrong because their greater purpose was to save face and dominate without regard to who they hurt and their people, because evolution produces credulity, sought that leader that would make them proud again.
"greater purpose" is a loaded word because everyone when they use that and get power can easily falsely feel superior.
