And behind door number?

There are essentially four levels of people.

Level 1: The Sociopath. This person serves only himself, which especially includes serving others only as a means of receiving benefits from them. Variations on this include narcissists, Ayn Randian objectivists, most corporations, and some libertarians.

Level 2: The Common Human. This person only serves people he knows or values, such as friends, family, or group, with no real regard for non-members. Variations on this include nationalists, ideologues, racists, and many religious people.

Level 3: The Virtuous Man. This person also serves strangers, as long as he feels he has surplus resources to help them and they are needy through no fault of their own.

Level 4: The Christian. This person particularly delights in serving people who do not deserve it, people he dislikes, and his enemies, especially to his own personal detriment and when they don’t appreciate it.
So, based on this taxonomy, what sort of person are you?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Andrew, I really needed that mirror today... Don from Surprise.

Andrew Tallman said...

We all do, Don. We all do. From a guy who hopes one day to look at that TOD and say, "Sweet! I'm right were I should be." I hope Andrew 4.0 is both more generous and more gracious about it than Andrew 3.0001 =)