> It cannot be “good” for a social structure by definition.

Is 'good for the social structure' the metric to use for defining good? Should we be serving the social structure to be 'good'?

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atmosx 12 hours ago | parent [-]

Hehe. These are tough questions. I had a specific scope in mind. But to answer your questions.

> Is 'good for the social structure' the metric to use for defining good?

No.

> Should we be serving the social structure to be 'good'?

Yes.

Does that make sense? :-)

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verisimi 12 hours ago | parent [-]

It makes sense.

But, imagine the case where I do not think serving the social structure is good. And I make what sound like cynical jokes about serving the social structure. For those that believe in serving the social structure, that cynicism only had negative connotations. But for those who don't believe all that, the bitter joke might accurately reflect their understanding according to reality.

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atmosx 12 hours ago | parent [-]

Let me narrow the scope a bit. I believe that distrust in others is a flaw in human psychology. But it's old and has been stated by the likes of Plato and Dostoyevsky (e.g. "If God did not exist, everything would be acceptable") and countless others that I look up to.

IMO that is a "series-B" type of argument. We know empirically that great things come out of putting trust on the hands of "unlikely candidates". So even if God doesn't exist, ppl are still capable of "good" just because they chose to do so, given the chance.

At the same time, it would be unwise to blindly trust ppl when there are warnings all around. So why not take a tempered approach? Trust a little, then trust a little more. The "applied answer" (e.g. social policies) falls within a spectrum that might change based on circumstance, there's no absolute representation as if we're picking a point in a Y/X axis, only optimal answers (like NP-complete problems).

I wouldn't call the tempered approach "cynical", I would call that "wise".

	▲	verisimi 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> I believe that distrust in others is a flaw in human psychology. It sounds like you've never met a narcissist or psychopath. I hope you never do. I think your tempered approach is fine, but still doesn't work for some types of personality.