re: #82 Stanley Sea

I always go to empathy. Or the strikingly lack thereof.

Some have it, some don’t.

But that’s the thing. This woman I’m describing does have empathy. She’s a kind, empathetic person who volunteers at a homeless shelter. But the idea of punishment for transgression is a very strong cultural one, and she’s been raised with that as an idea. Maybe college will change her—even at John Jay the professors are going to keep exposing her to the actual truth, the consequences of various lines of logic—and maybe not, but it’s important to remember if you grow up surrounded by those ideals, you’re more than likely going to wind up holding those ideals too, even if it requires a certain amount of double-think on your own part.

If someone is raised to believe that moral judgements are superior to practical judgements, it’s hard to argue them out of that worldview. It’s a mystic worldview.