Yesterday, after waiting to turn left into a strip mall, I watched a truck go around me, make a u-turn in the middle of the street and in the process suck up the only break in a long line of traffic, causing me to wait even longer. So I honked at him. That last part I sort of regret, but why did his actions so annoy me?
It’s simple. The most distinctive feature of bad drivers is their selfishness. In essence, they make other people suffer in order to get what benefits them. This is what makes them barbarians.
A much more rational approach is for all of us to follow the rules of the road because doing so tends to reduce the overall suffering of everyone. This is called being civilized.
But an even better way is to recognize opportunities where we can voluntarily benefit others at the expense of our own suffering, so long as in the process we don’t kink up the order created by everyone following the rules.
Being selfish improves to being fair, which improves to being generous. This progression is Christian ethics in a nutshell.
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