Faldoni, parts 2672 - 2675

 2672. In the end one may suspect that this salesman never really cared about that cat. Also, one might suspect that even when he was watching the Chinese miners brought to safety out of his hotel, shivering and wrapped in blankets, deep down he didn’t care about them either.

 2673. The only thing that mattered to the salesman was not the tragedy or misfortune that some people or some cats were suffering or might possibly suffer. What mattered to him was the distance from his person where the said suffering was going to take place. If the suffering was going to occur in his elevator, or on his street, even if it was only his street for that one evening, then, in that circumstance, his organ of empathy might be aroused to the highest degree of which it was capable.

 2674. But inch by inch, and foot by foot, the farther the suffering that was happening in the world was from his person the less he was able to think about it, let alone feel anything about it.

2675. In the end our salesman, who does not actually exist, but is just an imaginary extension of anybody, cares only about himself and nobody else. Apparently that is how it is supposed to be arranged, since all of our faculties were designed with only our own preservation in mind.