No, indeed not. But the point is that people have the capacity to and yet choose not to. To quote Dawkins's closing comments to the original version of The Selfish Gene</>:
"...even if we look on the dark side and assume that individual man is fundamentally selfish, our conscious foresight - our capacity to simulate the future in imagination - could save us from the worst selfish excesses of the blind replicators. [...] We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators."
Yes, I expect individuals to act as obnoxious little gits some of the time. But I also expect society to collectively frown on and discourage such behaviour, and what depresses me is the feeling that more and more it is accepted as the norm, after which it is not far to it being seen as the only way to get what you want in life.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2002-12-15 08:50 am (UTC)"...even if we look on the dark side and assume that individual man is fundamentally selfish, our conscious foresight - our capacity to simulate the future in imagination - could save us from the worst selfish excesses of the blind replicators. [...] We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators."
Yes, I expect individuals to act as obnoxious little gits some of the time. But I also expect society to collectively frown on and discourage such behaviour, and what depresses me is the feeling that more and more it is accepted as the norm, after which it is not far to it being seen as the only way to get what you want in life.
MC