spite: altruism’s evil twin
Damn-it. Just wrote a massive long thesis and then got it deleted by this piece of crap computer. That’s it, I’m getting a new one.
Jodi is right; thinking too much is destructive. Ryan and I discussed this a little, in the context of being ‘wierd’, in this post and the comments (although I don’t know that we concluded much).
Phil, why should I relax? In any case I am relaxed, I just get frustrated from time to time. Don’t you guys all get frustrated? I hope you do; it keeps you alive and kicking.
There’s not much point if everyone just sits around thinking that everything is great, or is there value in that? It’s a lot like the argument of ‘are food fights wasteful?’ In fact, I think that frustration (and possibly discontent) is one of the most important driving forces in my life (it’s interesting that it’s not faith).
I was also thinking about how I said that the majority of people are selfish. I still think that’s true but also found it interesting that none of my friends were selfish. Then I though well, that’s why they are my friends. But, there are presumably varying degrees of selfishness. I think we’re probably all a little bit selfish.
Then I remembered that altruism doesn’t exist, so this must be true. But, wouldn’t that make us all a little bit spiteful, rather than a little bit selfish? (see: Vickery et al. (2003). Spite: altruism’s evil twin. Oikos 102(2) p.413).
*edit* if that’s all a bit too hard-core-thinking for you: check out The awesome skating dog.