I find very depressing that the emergent behaviour of competitive companies resembles psychopathy. If all those complaints came from the same individual we would surely call him out! Instead morality suffers the death of a thousand cuts.
I hope local behaviour is not a predictor of global behaviour.
Otherwise mankind is not going to solve existential threats such as global warming. It reminds me of the tragedy of the commons.
Science writer Lewis Thomas observed this decades ago:
> The solitary Ik, isolated in the ruins of an exploded culture, has built a new defense for himself. If you live in an unworkable society you can make up one of your own, and this is what the Iks have done. Each Ik has become a group, a one-man tribe on its own, a constituency.
> Now everything falls into place. This is why they do seem, after all, vaguely familiar to all of us. We’ve seen them before.
> This is precisely the way groups of one size or another, ranging from committees to nations, behave. It is, of course, this aspect of humanity that has lagged behind the rest of evolution, and this is why the Ik seems so primitive. In his absolute selfishness, his incapacity to give anything away, no matter what, he is a successful committee. When he stands at the door of his hut, shouting insults at his neighbors in a loud harangue, he is city addressing another city.
> Cities have all the Ik characteristics. They defecate on doorsteps, in rivers and lakes, their own or anyone else’s. They leave rubbish. They detest all neighboring cities, give nothing away. They even build institutions for deserting elders out of sight.
> Nations are the most Ik-like of all. No wonder the Iks seem familiar. For total greed, capacity, heartlessness, and irresponsibility there is nothing to match a nation. Nations, by law, are solitary, self-centered, withdrawn into themselves. There is no such thing as affection between nations, and certainly no nation ever loved another. They bawl insults from their doorsteps, defecate into whole oceans, snatch all the food, survive by detestation, take joy in the bad luck of others, celebrate the death of others, live for the death of others.
I hope local behaviour is not a predictor of global behaviour. Otherwise mankind is not going to solve existential threats such as global warming. It reminds me of the tragedy of the commons.