For one thing, politics is basically the rules governing conduct between people who are treating each other as members of different tribes. In this environment “nice” isn’t really a likely outcome, given human moral sentiments.
The definition of “tribe” is very flexible, at least as how it applies to human moral sentiments. I’m talking about psychological tribes, not literal ones (hence the slightly awkward phrasing in the passage of mine you quoted)
The law is principally about how you deal with people you don’t really care about. You generally don’t look to the law to work out how to treat your family or friends (and when one does, its generally considered a bad thing). The law’s primary purpose is to control how you treat people you have no strong affiliation with. Humanity does not have a happy history when it comes to dealing equitably with strangers or near-strangers.
The definition of “tribe” is very flexible, at least as how it applies to human moral sentiments. I’m talking about psychological tribes, not literal ones (hence the slightly awkward phrasing in the passage of mine you quoted)
I’m talking about psychological tribes too. That is where politics finds it’s primary home. To the extent that families and friendship groups act like tribes, they too have politics. As do offices.
As for laws, well, that’s slightly more complex, made more so when our inter-tribe and within-tribe moral systems get somewhat blurred by circumstances.
For one thing, politics is basically the rules governing conduct between people who are treating each other as members of different tribes. In this environment “nice” isn’t really a likely outcome, given human moral sentiments.
Politics is primarily a within tribe tool.
The definition of “tribe” is very flexible, at least as how it applies to human moral sentiments. I’m talking about psychological tribes, not literal ones (hence the slightly awkward phrasing in the passage of mine you quoted)
The law is principally about how you deal with people you don’t really care about. You generally don’t look to the law to work out how to treat your family or friends (and when one does, its generally considered a bad thing). The law’s primary purpose is to control how you treat people you have no strong affiliation with. Humanity does not have a happy history when it comes to dealing equitably with strangers or near-strangers.
I’m talking about psychological tribes too. That is where politics finds it’s primary home. To the extent that families and friendship groups act like tribes, they too have politics. As do offices.
As for laws, well, that’s slightly more complex, made more so when our inter-tribe and within-tribe moral systems get somewhat blurred by circumstances.