This website will be unavailable from 05:00 (for up to 4 hours) for scheduled maintenance.
Due to scheduled maintenance, this website may become unavailable at any moment.
Personal Blogs
Personal Blogs
The doubles standards we hold others to
Wednesday 18 February 2026 at 07:38
Visible to anyone in the world
I often ask myself what has led to the rise in populism around the world today?
Why is it that we think others, whether immigrant, the out of work, or different ethnicities are out to play the system whilst we are good, honest citizens?
They are questions posed in Rutger Breman's brilliant book 'Human kind: A hopeful history' too and ones which the answers are offered and are mainly to do with fear and conditioning.
But I was struck by one paragraph in particular which reads:
"A British study recently found that a vast majority of the population (74%) identify with values such as helpfulness, honesty and justice than with wealth, status and power. But just about as large a share (78%) think others are more self-interested than they really are."
It's a fascinating paragraph becuase it shows, overwhelmingly, that we hold others to different standards than we hold ourselves to, and the standards we expect of others are based on distrust.
If the world could get to a place where we hold others to the same benevolent standards that we believe we hold ourselves wouldn't it be a much better place?
That would be a world that would have no place for populism.
The doubles standards we hold others to
I often ask myself what has led to the rise in populism around the world today?
Why is it that we think others, whether immigrant, the out of work, or different ethnicities are out to play the system whilst we are good, honest citizens?
They are questions posed in Rutger Breman's brilliant book 'Human kind: A hopeful history' too and ones which the answers are offered and are mainly to do with fear and conditioning.
But I was struck by one paragraph in particular which reads:
"A British study recently found that a vast majority of the population (74%) identify with values such as helpfulness, honesty and justice than with wealth, status and power. But just about as large a share (78%) think others are more self-interested than they really are."
It's a fascinating paragraph becuase it shows, overwhelmingly, that we hold others to different standards than we hold ourselves to, and the standards we expect of others are based on distrust.
If the world could get to a place where we hold others to the same benevolent standards that we believe we hold ourselves wouldn't it be a much better place?
That would be a world that would have no place for populism.