Are personalities a bad thing to have?

On the surface the answer'd be no, but wouldn't having one mean that any action is at least partly ego-dependent? And wouldn't that mean completely selfless acts were impossible, implying that true compassion can only exist after the self has been eliminated?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

My first reaction would be to say that it puts you in a position where "sufficiently good" means something. That gets you in trouble with conflicting standards on where "sufficiently good" exists and what you have to do to get there. It also might mean that now there exists (where is my existential quantifier ;_; ) a set of people about whom you do not care, and would not help.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Eh, because there tends to be a threshold with these things right? A point beyond which differences become irreconcilable. Even less severe, a point beyond which you can not empathize.

Soluzar, where are we beginning here? It was assumed that true compassion is an ideal, the question being whether personality inhibits your progress toward it. If you wish to challenge that, it's not a discussion I'm prepared to have without sources. Off-hand I remember that some guy with the last name Proudfoot, wrote in the conclusion of a book on religious experience that the historical narrative of the modern age lumped together with a general shift away from spirituality has led to a decay in the quality of life. Again though, I don't have those books handy.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

My bias? It was an idle thought. It occured to me the argument could be made. As for sources, in the book, Proudfoot mentioned a number of studies done regarding religious experience. It actually wasn't him, it was some french guy who did a study of primitive cultures and their religious beliefs as compared to ours. Started with an L, I think.

Anyway, you seemed to be making the argument that we are inherently selfish creatures with self-interest being the prime motivator. I'm sure you have observations to back that up. I'm also willing to grant that this is probably a common state of affairs for most people, so what we'd be arguing about really would be whether this was universal. To do that, I'd have to appeal to professionals in the matter, because I lack the empirical data myself.

Without any kind of back-up data though, we'd be reduced to arguing semantics, and I am certain that nothing worthwhile ever came of that.

edit: Whoever the guy was though, he did cite rising use of anti-depressants, increased number of suicides, and things of that nature, so you see, it wasn't just an off-the-cuff statement. It seems reasonable to draw that conclusion. Of course we could get into some sort of entrenched battle about the reliability of the data, but I was aiming for a casual discussion.

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