Look, Czarcasm, this is a well known game theory problem. If everyone cooperates we’ll all do better. But if one person cheats, he does better and his neighbors do worse, for a net lower score.
But the trouble is that simply following the “always cooperate” rule is unstable. The cheaters inevitably take over the system, and the equilibrium state is to always cheat. This is why animals eat each other.
Now, you say that if only everyone would cooperate we’d be better off, and you’re right, but that doesn’t matter, because “always cooperate” is a losing strategy. No animal that takes that strategy will survive. The only possible strategy is one that is an equilibrium strategy, one that is able to deal with both cooperation and cheating. If you wonder why so many people seem ANGRY at you for your pacifism, it’s because “always cooperate” doesn’t lead to a world of cooperators, it leads to a world of “always cheat”, because in a world of always cooperate, then always cheat is the optimum strategy.
Since we live in a world where people are born, live, then die, any strategy that can’t be an equilibrium strategy won’t exist for long. And this why everyone insists that if you don’t arrest the criminals, then the criminals take over. And when the criminals take over, the first thing the do is rob and kill the pacifists, and then no one is left to spread pacifism to the next generation.
Which is why “self defense” is the only workable moral choice. You cooperate first, and continue cooperating with anyone who cooperates, but if someone cheats then you cheat. But when they start cooperating again, you start cooperating again. Stable strategy. If everyone adopts this strategy, everyone wins, and, get this, no one actually has to “cheat”, because everyone else is cooperating. But when you get an “always cheat” introduced to the game, the always cheater is punished. If an always cooperator is introduced, they also thrive, but the thing is, they rely on the ones willing to punish the cheaters, because unless the cheaters are punished they’ll take over.
And so that’s the source of the annoyance. You’re a free rider, you rely on others to help you, and you feel good about yourself because you don’t have to actually punish any cheaters.
