Quote:
Originally Posted by Webgoji
1. I don't think you need to retire it because the thinking patterns you've developed are very self-defeating and negative.
2. The articles you linked to are, at best, angry and judgmental tirades.
3. How we help the world is different for every person.
You can't let someone tell you that making art, in whatever fashion, is a waste because someone is starving in Syria. As we all know, art functions at many different levels and we all give in varying degrees. Art can bring attention to subjects that wouldn't be discussed if we didn't broach the subject (like abuse, rape, genocide and bigotry). Art can uplift souls as well as expose them to the darker side of humanity. Art exists as an expression of life itself. You might not be able to bring food to that person in Syria, but you sure as heck can write or paint or sew or whatever your medium to influence someone here. Maybe they can help that person we're talking about as well?
Morality, in my opinion, can boil down to one simple question; are you providing value for someone else? If you are only contributing to negative states of mind, like the authors of the links you provided, then you are pushing them down, not lifting them up, not being of value to them.
Don't waste energy pushing yourself or someone else down. Engage in whatever artistic pursuits you enjoy. Watch a movie. Go for a bike ride. Because if you made someone smile today, you made a difference. Just ask around these forums, especially these forums, how important getting a chance to smile is and then slap those so-called theists and philosophers with it because you helped someone where they didn't.
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Actually...you're kind of making the kind of arguments these writers are against.
The entire point is that structuring your life around EA provides more value (in the form of lives saved, and overall wellbeing in the world), and helps significantly more people in a much more significant way than an average person does. Like I mentioned regarding art - which is more "good", making a privileged American smile or saving the lives of 50 Syrian children? Obviously the latter - helping some rich Westerner with their mental issues is less important than providing the basic needs of the severely disadvantaged, because you can't have psych problems if you died of malaria in infancy. How can you call yourself good if yout aren't devoting your resources to those who suffer the most? Our rich, western issues and desires are less important than the survival-threatening poverty of others.
So in a sense, local focus is like shirking a global duty, under this philosophy.
Of course, this provides that your morality hinges on providing for others. I've basically been running around looking for a way out of this being the only valid definition of good, the true way to be a moral person. I take issue with how a "minimally ethical life" requires such a huge commitment. There's inconvenient sacrifice and then there's totally subjugating the self for the sake of others, which no one seems to want to admit is EAs logical extreme. This was how I ended up on the Wikipedia page for ethical egoism. While it's actually too selfish for me, it's closer to what I tend to think is appropriate for any person, anywhere. It's the denial of the individual that bothers me in utilitarianism in general. Basically I need something that justifies acting in the interest of others sometimes, doesn't penalize self-interest, and definitely can't be extrapolated to "living for others". Because screw that. Others matter, but I kind of think one has a duty to oneself, whatever one was born into in life.
The fact alone that I'm writing this means I've gotten better - my mind's doing it's stupid thing and I'm kinda numb. It just sort of happened when I realized what my real objections and anxieties are, and started looking for alternatives for conduct. Surely humans have thought of justifications for doing whatever you want in life. Which is the same damn issue I started with - do I do what I want, or something else? Give up because it's all meaningless? Devote myself to a strict idea of "good"? What?
What's the right way to live and be? That's my biggest issue. That and, " how can I harmonize that with what I think/know I want?"
Lastly, because I write too much, I mentioned retiring because I bug people. Every day I seem to have a new crisis over some abstraction, or some comparison, or something stupid. Is there a disorder that involves rapid mood swings like that, over such stupid things? I mean, most people never worry too much...