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Old September 24th, 2008, 03:39 AM

quantum_mechani quantum_mechani is offline
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Default Re: OT: US Pres election

Quote:
Originally Posted by HoneyBadger View Post
It's not intentional, Quantum Mechani, it's instinctual. Human brains are just not designed in such a way for us to automatically care very much about more than the people in our immediate surroundings. We're not hardwired to properly process pain and tragedy on a global scale. Any additional compassion we may feel towards people in other countries is supplimental and beyond the normal human scope of interest.
That's understandable- I don't think it's avoidable or even necessarily desirable that the suffering of a stranger mean as much as the suffering of anyone you know personally. But this is an entirely different matter, sorting people by their nationality/race/culture. To many Americans (and probably similarly for other nationalities) the suffering of an American they don't know means a lot more than just a person in general they do not know... and that's something in my opinion far less excusable.
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