Justice

There's this part of the brain that governs the desire to punish others. It fires when a human observes someone else (usually a person) doing something "wrong." It engenders a desire to punish the wrongdoing, even if there is no benefit and great cost to one's self. It is independent of anger, which is governed alongside fear in the amygdala (part of the limbic system.)

You'll be interested to note that this part of the brain only governs other peoples' behavior - it doesn't concern itself with one's own behavior. What we expect of others may be much more or less than what we expect of ourselves.

This part of the brain may be extremely helpful for society in general, but it's very disadvantageous to the individual.

So I tried to get rid of it. I took out my handy-dandy hand-held transcranial magnetic stimulation device, and I was about to suppress that area in myself, temporarily, but then Society In General knocked on my door.

"You can't do that," they said, in a weird attempt at unison, "It's wrong."

I tried to count individuals, but there were none. Just a general mass of society.

"Why is it wrong? It's my choice."

"Without punishment there can be no justice," they said.

I was going to ignore them but then I noticed how fashionable their clothes were. Which is a cheap trick of Society in General, I think, since they also decide what clothes are fashionable.

Curses! Foiled again!