Z:gnu-www-ja-self-interest--1efd12-Those people aware of modern m/en

Those people aware of modern mathematics or of programming techniques should appreciate the recursive, and inherently unstable, interactions between individual morality and social structure. To oversimplify in a useful manner: People with substantial moral beliefs organize societies along those beliefs and those societies then begin to form the habits and beliefs of children, immigrants, etc. according to those same beliefs. Always, it is a messy historical process which can be destroyed or rerouted into less desirable paths. There is inevitably a question as to whether we are straying from a proper path and also a question as to how robust the society is, i.e., how much of a disturbance it would take to destroy much of what is good about that society.