Why be good?

[henryp]

Empathy, to me, is a tricky thing.  When you think about it, it's really a different way to make everything about yourself.   

"I feel bad that you got hit by a car, because I would hate it if I got hit by a car."

Now you're getting it!

Of course empathy is about oneself. We have a built in, evolved reward system that when we do something altruistic for another (because we know how we would feel in same circumstance), we get an emotional reward. Our brains produce a soup of chemicals that make us feel good as a reward for doing good.

If there wasn't this built in reward system, we would not help others, and our ancestors would not have survived for us to be here talking about this. This reward system is one of our most important survival strategies.  

Some people have a broken reward system. We label them as "sociopaths". 

As rational beings, we can rework stupid evolutionary traits, to the point of erasing them altogether.  And we can definitely override stupid social traits.

If this was 1950, we'd probably be smoking a cigarette to fit in, reaping that sweet sweet emotional reward of social conformity.  Then if we found out that Cigs caused Cancer, some would say "Fuck that!" and quit.  And for some the option to feel an emotional reward for smoking cigarettes would no longer be available, because the knowledge that it was terrible and killing you would erase it. (this ignores addiction)

We've seen it with Atheists.  For the 20th century everyone was all "God God God!"  And people mostly went along.  But some said "This is bullshit to a degree I'm not getting any emotional reward from belonging with these people." and left the church.

And with me.  People are saying "Charity makes you great!  Help poor starving kids!  Help Darfur!  Help Haiti!"  And you give your $20 bucks, and feel like a great person with all your warm fuzzy emotional rewards.  But I realized that 'You're the same species, so you care about them' is as flimsy as it gets.  And once I realized caring about them was irrational, I no longer got the 'emotional rewards.'  There's no going back. 

To me, it sounds like you know you are programmed to believe the, what I consider, irrational idea that 'I care about 7 billion people because we are the same species.'  But knowing that you are programmed to believe something that's pretty absurd is worth it for the emotional reward?  

Believing in something irrational for some emotional rewards is the cornerstone of something we rail against here daily.