I'm a rather emotional person with a very pronounced sense of empathy. I can, to an extent, feel physical or emotional stimuli that others feel, even if they're fictional characters or animals. It can be crippling but also very rewarding.
Given that short context, your post is interesting to me partly because, from my perspective, it sounds like you're searching for some empathy from me so that the channels of communication will open.
So either you aren't wanting us to empathize with your way of life being exhausting, in which case the purpose of the post eludes me, or you do wish for us to empathize. And finally, you certainly don't wish that you had the ability of empathy to minimize your (potential; real or theoretical) damage to other people's life experiences or feel other people's joy.
In other words, this logically deduces to being entirely self serving. You wish for us to empathize with you so that you can make a personal gain, not because you wish to do better by other people.
Isn't everyone self interested? To an extent, yes. I "selflessly" help someone, which increases my fitness as an organism because I experience their positive experience. If this goes both ways, it's a 4x net gain vs. 1 self interested individual. Two self interested individuals with aligned goals still only get 2x net gain, which is half as much as two selfless individuals.
Maybe I completely missed the mark but that's my evaluation. I'd be interested in hearing more on your perspective.
I have one question: can sociopaths express altruism?
Right, so that's the trouble with a self aware psychopath - I'm not sure what my motivations are beyond supporting my own ego and increasing my influence.
I have argued for a long time that everything everyone does is self-serving, it's just wrapped in all of this social/behavioral expectation. Maybe that's because I am unfamiliar with actual selflessness.
Can sociopaths express altruism - I argue yes insofar that the outcomes are mutually beneficial. I spent the first half of my professional life in public service, taking much less pay than I could have doing something else. I make special effort to volunteer and spend time during the holidays with the indigent - going so far as not to post or boast publicly because that is transparently self serving - letting others do that on my behalf.
All that is done though so I am "beyond reproach." So you can't say that I'm not great, that I haven't done everything possible to be a "good person." So when it comes time to implement what I want to implement, nobody can find any dirt on me or say I'm a selfish bastard - cause just look at all the good works people can prove that I've done and I never even boasted about them!!
I think this is on the higher end of the functional sociopath spectrum though.
Given that short context, your post is interesting to me partly because, from my perspective, it sounds like you're searching for some empathy from me so that the channels of communication will open.
So either you aren't wanting us to empathize with your way of life being exhausting, in which case the purpose of the post eludes me, or you do wish for us to empathize. And finally, you certainly don't wish that you had the ability of empathy to minimize your (potential; real or theoretical) damage to other people's life experiences or feel other people's joy.
In other words, this logically deduces to being entirely self serving. You wish for us to empathize with you so that you can make a personal gain, not because you wish to do better by other people.
Isn't everyone self interested? To an extent, yes. I "selflessly" help someone, which increases my fitness as an organism because I experience their positive experience. If this goes both ways, it's a 4x net gain vs. 1 self interested individual. Two self interested individuals with aligned goals still only get 2x net gain, which is half as much as two selfless individuals.
Maybe I completely missed the mark but that's my evaluation. I'd be interested in hearing more on your perspective.
I have one question: can sociopaths express altruism?
Thanks for your valuable time!