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Everyone struggles with being selfish. It's good to be aware of our own self-interested impulses and work towards counteracting them. So why not have mandatory

Everyone struggles with being selfish. It's good to be aware of our own self-interested impulses and work towards counteracting them. So why not have mandatory training at work that teaches us that we're all selfish at some level and that we need to address that character flaw?

StanislavPetrov 6y ago
>Everyone struggles with being selfish. Sorry but that's just a completely baseless assertion. Not everyone is selfish, nor is it a struggle for everyone to not be selfish. Assuming that others think as you think is what we call in poker, "first level thinking". The same concept can be extended to those who obsess over "diversity" and insist, "everyone is racist". Its flatly wrong, and frankly, idiotic to make such an assertion. Saddling everyone with the insecurities and deficiencies carried by a few is counterproductive and wrong. Your employer has every right to be concerned with your behavior at work, and take any sort of punitive or corrective measures that your misbehavior may merit. Your employer should have no role making sweeping judgements about your beliefs or personality traits that have not been manifested in the workplace, much less mandating Soviet-style re-education which hinges on their baseless (and flawed) assumptions about human nature.
- humanrebar 6y ago
  You disagree with me but then you reiterate my rhetorical point.
  - StanislavPetrov 6y ago
    If you equate judging people on their actions rather than making sweeping judgements about them to being selfish, then your problems extend far beyond selfishness.
- codezero 6y ago
  If you eat when you are hungry you are selfish.
  - StanislavPetrov 6y ago
    Ironically your trite answer exposes the substance-free nature of this argument. If eating when you are hungry makes you selfish, then what is your anti-selfishness re-education supposed to accomplish? Are you going to stop eating? Defining "selfishness" in such an absurd, all-encompassing manner renders the term itself meaningless. This sort of mania reminds me very much of the idea of "original sin" put forth by the Catholic Church. You can spend your life repenting, but you can never wipe away the stain on your soul! Reasonable people can skip this sort of faith-based nonsense by avoiding church but its becoming more and more difficult for reasonable people to avoid this kind of nonsense at it seeps into the workplace and every other facet of society.
    - codezero 6y ago
      My point is that all people are selfish in some way and that is ok and natural.
      - codezero 6y ago
        If you disagree we might be using the word selfish to mean different things. That’s also possible, and normal, these conundrums can only be discovered and addressed with communication, and a willingness to listen.
        StanislavPetrov 6y ago
        Yea, that or a dictionary.
      - lliamander 6y ago
        I don't think it's correct or helpful to use the term "selfish" to describe rationally self-interested behavior which does not impinge upon the needs of others.
        codezero 6y ago
        That’s semantics.
throw_m239339 6y ago
> Everyone struggles with being selfish. It's good to be aware of our own self-interested impulses and work towards counteracting them. So why not have mandatory training at work that teaches us that we're all selfish at some level and that we need to address that character flaw? A for profit corporation is the very definition of selfishness. And you think that a corporation can teach you "not to be selfish" when the entire goal is productivity in order to make someone a whole lot more money that you will ever earn? You don't see a contradiction in what you are saying? It can't get more hypocritical like that. These trainings only exist to benefit the corporation, not the individual subjected to these. The perfect alliance between soviet style propaganda techniques (struggle sessions to break the individual) and hyper capitalism. And no, everybody does not struggle with being selfish. Everybody isn't selfish. By victimizing their employees with "diversity training" on the other hand, corporations have found the perfect way to break them, with the approval and moral support of the left. In fact, many corporations known for their anti-union schemes do also force their employees through these "diversity training" sessions.
lenkite 6y ago
Replacing the entire capitalist system of the world with a tyrannical socialist system would be the only way to avoid selfishness.
raxxorrax 6y ago
I won't share my greed with you.

StanislavPetrov 6y ago

>Everyone struggles with being selfish. Sorry but that's just a completely baseless assertion. Not everyone is selfish, nor is it a struggle for everyone to not be selfish. Assuming that others think as you think is what we call in poker, "first level thinking". The same concept can be extended to those who obsess over "diversity" and insist, "everyone is racist". Its flatly wrong, and frankly, idiotic to make such an assertion. Saddling everyone with the insecurities and deficiencies carried by a few is counterproductive and wrong. Your employer has every right to be concerned with your behavior at work, and take any sort of punitive or corrective measures that your misbehavior may merit. Your employer should have no role making sweeping judgements about your beliefs or personality traits that have not been manifested in the workplace, much less mandating Soviet-style re-education which hinges on their baseless (and flawed) assumptions about human nature.

humanrebar 6y ago
You disagree with me but then you reiterate my rhetorical point.
- StanislavPetrov 6y ago
  If you equate judging people on their actions rather than making sweeping judgements about them to being selfish, then your problems extend far beyond selfishness.
codezero 6y ago
If you eat when you are hungry you are selfish.
- StanislavPetrov 6y ago
  Ironically your trite answer exposes the substance-free nature of this argument. If eating when you are hungry makes you selfish, then what is your anti-selfishness re-education supposed to accomplish? Are you going to stop eating? Defining "selfishness" in such an absurd, all-encompassing manner renders the term itself meaningless. This sort of mania reminds me very much of the idea of "original sin" put forth by the Catholic Church. You can spend your life repenting, but you can never wipe away the stain on your soul! Reasonable people can skip this sort of faith-based nonsense by avoiding church but its becoming more and more difficult for reasonable people to avoid this kind of nonsense at it seeps into the workplace and every other facet of society.
  - codezero 6y ago
    My point is that all people are selfish in some way and that is ok and natural.
    - codezero 6y ago
      If you disagree we might be using the word selfish to mean different things. That’s also possible, and normal, these conundrums can only be discovered and addressed with communication, and a willingness to listen.
      - StanislavPetrov 6y ago
        Yea, that or a dictionary.
    - lliamander 6y ago
      I don't think it's correct or helpful to use the term "selfish" to describe rationally self-interested behavior which does not impinge upon the needs of others.
      - codezero 6y ago
        That’s semantics.

throw_m239339 6y ago

> Everyone struggles with being selfish. It's good to be aware of our own self-interested impulses and work towards counteracting them. So why not have mandatory training at work that teaches us that we're all selfish at some level and that we need to address that character flaw? A for profit corporation is the very definition of selfishness. And you think that a corporation can teach you "not to be selfish" when the entire goal is productivity in order to make someone a whole lot more money that you will ever earn? You don't see a contradiction in what you are saying? It can't get more hypocritical like that. These trainings only exist to benefit the corporation, not the individual subjected to these. The perfect alliance between soviet style propaganda techniques (struggle sessions to break the individual) and hyper capitalism. And no, everybody does not struggle with being selfish. Everybody isn't selfish. By victimizing their employees with "diversity training" on the other hand, corporations have found the perfect way to break them, with the approval and moral support of the left. In fact, many corporations known for their anti-union schemes do also force their employees through these "diversity training" sessions.

lenkite 6y ago

Replacing the entire capitalist system of the world with a tyrannical socialist system would be the only way to avoid selfishness.

raxxorrax 6y ago

I won't share my greed with you.