I, sometimes proudly, do ignore the broad “ethical principle” of behaving as I would like others to behave. I don’t hold that as a moral belief.
Well, then to go back to the basics of ethics: if you were in the market for a bicycle, and had an opportunity to steal a really nice one from a stranger without any possibility of getting caught, would you steal it?
I’m saying I don’t always act a certain way. Producing a counterexample where I do act that way doesn’t disprove my position.
I used to have a reasoned moral code that favored consistency, but I slowly dropped these when I moved into the real world and witnessed lots of people not following my precious moral system. There’s no point cooperating if others don’t cooperate, too. For iterated games, tit-for-tat >= always cooperate.
There are some moral beliefs (i.e. don’t steal/lie) I usually feel a compulsion to follow regardless of the utility. I blame/thank evolution. In small circles, I lean more towards the golden rule (i.e. don’t overbill). But in larger circles, playing the cooperate card because you would want others to is not a strategy I endorse.
What do you think causes the difference between your behavior in small groups vs. in large groups? Perhaps if voting had small-group consequences you’d be more likely to. For example, suppose it were easy on social networks to see an overall “political participation score” for any given person, based on how many of the elections available to them they voted in.
There’s already big signalling benefits to voting. I think it explains why most people do it. However, it feels dirty for me to do something out of concern for my image, so I abstain.
Back when Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel prize, I remember reading a summary of her work that says self-management of the commons is possible when communities are a certain size. I forget the magic number, but I think it was something like 120,000.
(Note: I didn’t vote you down.)
Well, then to go back to the basics of ethics: if you were in the market for a bicycle, and had an opportunity to steal a really nice one from a stranger without any possibility of getting caught, would you steal it?
I’m saying I don’t always act a certain way. Producing a counterexample where I do act that way doesn’t disprove my position.
I used to have a reasoned moral code that favored consistency, but I slowly dropped these when I moved into the real world and witnessed lots of people not following my precious moral system. There’s no point cooperating if others don’t cooperate, too. For iterated games, tit-for-tat >= always cooperate.
There are some moral beliefs (i.e. don’t steal/lie) I usually feel a compulsion to follow regardless of the utility. I blame/thank evolution. In small circles, I lean more towards the golden rule (i.e. don’t overbill). But in larger circles, playing the cooperate card because you would want others to is not a strategy I endorse.
What do you think causes the difference between your behavior in small groups vs. in large groups? Perhaps if voting had small-group consequences you’d be more likely to. For example, suppose it were easy on social networks to see an overall “political participation score” for any given person, based on how many of the elections available to them they voted in.
There’s already big signalling benefits to voting. I think it explains why most people do it. However, it feels dirty for me to do something out of concern for my image, so I abstain.
Back when Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel prize, I remember reading a summary of her work that says self-management of the commons is possible when communities are a certain size. I forget the magic number, but I think it was something like 120,000.