Theorists and gurus like to make a pattern: people are all selfish; people are only influenced by class interests; people hate their parents; people can be conditioned; men are aggressive; women are gentle; people cannot help themselves, and so on. But this is not so much a matter of following the evidence, as of imposing an interpretation on it. Like all stereotypes, such interpretations can be dangerous, for people can be caused to conform to them, and often become worse as a result than they might have been otherwise. The job of conceptual engineering, here, is to supply a clearer outline
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