We Should Not Privilege Our Local Community

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Peter Singer has argued that when we think about how to be nice to other people, we should. It's wrong to privilege your family and parochialism of a tribe or an extended family. John Sutter: The idea that we can overcome human natureso fundamental part of human nature is absolutely absurd. He says what we actually need are just very formal rules that aren't obviously fair in some way.Sutter: Why do we need these roles? What kind of fish does one society only eat if they have fins and scales on them?

Traditions and norms can seem at best out-of-touch and at worst offensive to many a modern mind. But Israeli computer scientist and Talmud scholar Moshe Koppel argues that traditions and norms--if they evolve slowly--create trust, develop our capacity for deferred gratification, and even, in the case of how we prepare cassava, protect us from poisoning. Listen as the author of Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures talks with EconTalk Russ Roberts about tradition, religion, tribalism, resilience, and emergent order.