Thanks for the question—it’s made me realise I should clarify: I didn’t mean I’m struggling to think of examples of other large, high-trust communities. I meant I’m struggling to think of examples of other comparably large and comparably high-trust communities.
But yes, I imagine there are in fact several examples I’m not familiar enough with or haven’t thought of, but the levels of trust I’ve experienced in this community still strike me as weirdly high for a philosophy that can’t rely on the historically successful fear of deities or hatred of out-groups[1] to motivate a common purpose. I’m with Michael on thinking that trust has been broadly justified wrt current people in EA orgs (I wouldn’t expect or want you to take my word for it but I feel it’s worth stating), so I think this is something to be proud of.
[1]A big over-simplification, but I think these are at least very common powerful contributors to religious/military engagement that aren’t widely considered a core part of using evidence and reason to better love all sentient beings.
Thanks for the question—it’s made me realise I should clarify: I didn’t mean I’m struggling to think of examples of other large, high-trust communities. I meant I’m struggling to think of examples of other comparably large and comparably high-trust communities.
But yes, I imagine there are in fact several examples I’m not familiar enough with or haven’t thought of, but the levels of trust I’ve experienced in this community still strike me as weirdly high for a philosophy that can’t rely on the historically successful fear of deities or hatred of out-groups[1] to motivate a common purpose. I’m with Michael on thinking that trust has been broadly justified wrt current people in EA orgs (I wouldn’t expect or want you to take my word for it but I feel it’s worth stating), so I think this is something to be proud of.
[1]A big over-simplification, but I think these are at least very common powerful contributors to religious/military engagement that aren’t widely considered a core part of using evidence and reason to better love all sentient beings.