our own ethic of sympathy, The Mechanics of Virtue, Matt Berry, aphorism 82

82
Others may use their own victimization or weakness to enlist our services.  We do not step in as a benefactor; rather their necessity lords it over us.  They exploit and even cultivate their disadvantage, and we now serve them with the same sort of dedication that a butler serves his master.  

We are hooked by our own ethic of sympathy.  We hold to a moral standard by which we cannot endure the sight of ourselves as “scoundrels” ... “brutes” ... and nor can we endure the awareness that our “virtues” are only a pretext for serving a different sort of master.



A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism



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