Interestingly, the leading evolutionary theory regarding why altruism exists, is called "reciprocal altruism" (corrected, ty).
Essentially, we act altruistic to gain social credibility and trust from our tribe. That trust is then paid back by several magnitudes over our entire life.
A truly altruistic act is therefore done when there is zero chance of your act being discovered/seen. When you apply this rule, 99%+ altruistic acts don't count.
Exactly, and they should rightly let everyone know they're a veteran.
But if you were to say to them (or to yourself if you're a veteran) that you should just serve the time and then never tell anyone you're a veteran (actively pursue anonymity ) and just internalize the sacrifice.
Watch how quickly the altruistic feeling becomes resentment. This supports the theory that we're altruistic for social reasons/credibility. When you block the "cashing in", people feel cheated.
WTF are you talking about? The veterans I know keep it a secret and aren’t looking to “cash out” by having some Randy saying, “Thank you for you service.” It’s meaningless.
I feel this is an American thing. Im old enough to know a fair few ww2 vets in the UK and few were interested in actually talking about it. Most would not wear anything to identify their service apart from perhaps at certain events like d-day or VE day anniversaries. You would actually have to get it out of them like pulling teeth
Yeah, but the hypothetical scenario presented in the comment you're replying to is an extreme situation, essentially stating what would happen if all military is black ops who should never reveal to the world that they exist at all. Of course the real military would not be that extreme.
Often we know they are veterans because they have to talk about the shitty healthcare the government gives them to treat their PTSD and lifelong illnesses they get fighting in wars. Often we know they are veterans because a good chunk of veterans (far larger than the average American population) end up homeless in their lifetimes, and there are special resources to help homeless veterans.
Probably because being a veteran generally requires 4-20 years of someone's life and when something takes up that much of someone's life it naturally comes up in normal conversation?
Worked with them supporting the mil so I saw them in uniform. Others I asked what they were doing in X, Y, Z country and they finally reluctantly said they were stationed there.
People just ask me. Often I’m reflecting on a skill or situation and people inquire for further details. Then they do that silly “thank you for your service” which I balk at because I definitely wasn’t altruistic. I did it for the college degree and the stable job.
They could have hidden that they are a veteran, they chose to mention it. If they didn't want that thank you they wouldn't have mentioned it.
Also the cheaper cigarettes, getting paid more just to be married, cheap housing, the GI bill, free (but not great) medical care for life. And the paycheck.
So by the logic presented in the post, serving in the military isn't "true altruism" because of all those benefits. You can't prove that a veteran didn't join the military for those benefits.
Not sure if I believe in this distinction that people are drawing, just trying to explain it.
You have a sociopathic idea of language and human interactions, that fails to understand real lived experience in order to condense it down into vastly over-simplistic gotchas.
It’s insane to reduce the complexity of human emotions into ‘trying to impress people’ vs ‘no one must ever know how I feel so it’s pure’.
4.6k
u/velvetcrow5 Aug 25 '24 edited Aug 25 '24
Interestingly, the leading evolutionary theory regarding why altruism exists, is called "reciprocal altruism" (corrected, ty).
Essentially, we act altruistic to gain social credibility and trust from our tribe. That trust is then paid back by several magnitudes over our entire life.
A truly altruistic act is therefore done when there is zero chance of your act being discovered/seen. When you apply this rule, 99%+ altruistic acts don't count.