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Tocqueville says, in fact, that egoism is a little
like the rust of societies therefore, personal interest.
But, also, something else that is the timeframe is very important.
If the social agents, if the citizens
have a very short timeframe, they’re myopic,
they will make the wrong decisions. So, there is… one could talk, then,
about two types of impartiality: on one hand, the impartiality between people,
which must take into account the interest of each person, of everybody.
and, on the other hand, a type of what can be known as
“impartiality between instants in time”.
It’s necessary take into account not only the present generation,
but, also, future generations.
For example, on the problem of the environment,
it is absolutely necessary to take into account the future generations.
So, it isn’t just the egoism, but also the myopia
of the short timeframe, which is a very grave danger for democracy.
So, it is necessary to create institutions which minimize egoism,
But that also allow to keep into account the interest
of future generations. That’s something very hard to do,
since the future generations are not present in the debate.