Monday, January 25, 2010

Immorality of Power

Jonah Lehrer has an interesting post up about how having (or even just remembering having) power over others make people far less empathetic than normal.

The conclusion is not surprising, but is well put:

Of course, we live in an age when our most powerful people - they tend to also have lots of money - are also the most isolated. They live in gated communities with private drivers. They eat at different restaurants and stay at different resorts. They wear different clothes and skip the security lines at airports, before sitting at the front of the plane. We shouldn't be surprised that they're also assholes.

3 comments:

kristin said...

Just because it was hard not to think of it -- a quote I'm working with today that I very much like: “In general, we keep our power when we protect the power of others.” (from Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore)

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