I think there should be some use of the “moral sphere” model in understanding the dilemma presented. The moral sphere is conceptually easy to understand—each person extends moral consideration varying from the center, oneself, outward into society(or world in whole) until a boundary of moral exclusion is reached, and beyond this boundary exist ‘them’. The model would thus have Buddha being an idealized moral example having no boundary of exclusion and no decrease in moral consideration from self to the rest of the world.
The next consideration is that of culture, here in America, where we have schooled everyone to be...well....pitiful bitches. Seriously, the schooling process both breaks down community -even sense of community and neighborliness—and creates drones waiting for instruction from authority. (school is designed to do this see John Taylor Gatto and Ivan Illich for history and arguments). The studies you cite (and the fact you used deTocequville who witnessed the US pre-compulsory schooling) indict the culture created by our adoption of a school system meant to create a compliant, mindless, consumer society. To really impact the level of altruism in our culture you would do what you could to steer people away from the school system.
As for immediate intimate remedies look at how your “community” is structured—is it a really community(holistic relationships) or just a network(conditional, purposed relationships), or worse a hierarchical structure (relationships at work)? A final consideration is that if you are conditioning yourself to be more responsive in helping and more considerate of others you are going to find yourself developing skills in asserting authority, taking charge, and trying to solve dilemmas where you are being compelled to sacrifice from your own ‘good will’, or whatever tune your heartstrings get played to—this is undoing what schooling trains into everyone in various degrees.
I wouldn’t make such a broad prediction, but it is easy to see schooling decreases personal authority, without which the individual cannot act altruistically or selfishly (I argue both are the same, but depend on what one considers self—John Livingston’s ‘Rogue Primate’ expounds on this concept). I would suggest looking at the Amish culture as a case study. Historically, you can contrast early America (that of Franklin, Jefferson, Edison and the other American pioneers) and Hitler’s Germany ( the Nazi system was adopted from the new American schools and called the Indiana system by Germans so I have read). I would, based on these and other examples predict that the students raised outside the school system would have greater potential for many qualities including altruism, but that manifestation of these qualities will vary by environment and individual.
I think there should be some use of the “moral sphere” model in understanding the dilemma presented. The moral sphere is conceptually easy to understand—each person extends moral consideration varying from the center, oneself, outward into society(or world in whole) until a boundary of moral exclusion is reached, and beyond this boundary exist ‘them’. The model would thus have Buddha being an idealized moral example having no boundary of exclusion and no decrease in moral consideration from self to the rest of the world.
The next consideration is that of culture, here in America, where we have schooled everyone to be...well....pitiful bitches. Seriously, the schooling process both breaks down community -even sense of community and neighborliness—and creates drones waiting for instruction from authority. (school is designed to do this see John Taylor Gatto and Ivan Illich for history and arguments). The studies you cite (and the fact you used deTocequville who witnessed the US pre-compulsory schooling) indict the culture created by our adoption of a school system meant to create a compliant, mindless, consumer society. To really impact the level of altruism in our culture you would do what you could to steer people away from the school system.
As for immediate intimate remedies look at how your “community” is structured—is it a really community(holistic relationships) or just a network(conditional, purposed relationships), or worse a hierarchical structure (relationships at work)? A final consideration is that if you are conditioning yourself to be more responsive in helping and more considerate of others you are going to find yourself developing skills in asserting authority, taking charge, and trying to solve dilemmas where you are being compelled to sacrifice from your own ‘good will’, or whatever tune your heartstrings get played to—this is undoing what schooling trains into everyone in various degrees.
Would you predict that students raised outside of the school system are, as a group, more altruistic than those raised within it?
I wouldn’t make such a broad prediction, but it is easy to see schooling decreases personal authority, without which the individual cannot act altruistically or selfishly (I argue both are the same, but depend on what one considers self—John Livingston’s ‘Rogue Primate’ expounds on this concept). I would suggest looking at the Amish culture as a case study. Historically, you can contrast early America (that of Franklin, Jefferson, Edison and the other American pioneers) and Hitler’s Germany ( the Nazi system was adopted from the new American schools and called the Indiana system by Germans so I have read). I would, based on these and other examples predict that the students raised outside the school system would have greater potential for many qualities including altruism, but that manifestation of these qualities will vary by environment and individual.