[TheSpiceIsLife]

All virtuous people / groups are swiftly overrun by those who would act in their own interest.

This has been going on for at least some time, and likely confers at least some evolutionary advantage.

[jamesgreenleaf]

"The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies."

[diordiderot]

Who said this? It's hilarious

[maze-le]

Robert Conquest, a British historian specialized in the history of the Soviet Union.

[Bakary]

Where do you think 'virtue' comes from, and why do you think we value it? It's an evolutionary advantage like any other.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

That's a good point.

Virtuosity tends to extend less than self-interest, which seems to be approximately boundless.

Having said that, I guess ones perspective on that particular duality is Hugo influenced by ones mood in any given moment ;)

[Bakary]

Looking at this from another angle: even though our self-interest is strong, we live the majority of our lives under social rules that promote virtue (or rather, virtue is defined by the social rules). The number of humans who can actually pursue their self-interest in any real way is limited. Most of us have to work for many years, and surrender most of our lives to the broader world.

In fact, true psychopaths never seem to occupy more than 1% of the population. They are the self-interest pros because they do not feel fear or stress the same way we do and can make the most of it. But at the same time they find themselves limited by society even if a few of them succeed enormously.

All this to say, I'm not sure virtue is that limited. These are competing forces that have reached an equilibrium but most of the fabric of our lives IS virtuous.