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Apr 26, 2020, 02:43 PM
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Member Since: May 2013
Location: Chicago
Posts: 26,427
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bpcyclist
Okay, I get all this and I do this, much of the time. I use a kind of Buddhist, non-attachment type approach.
So, great. But what about the moral imperative not to stand by idly while clearly evil actions occur? For example, had the United States not entered the war against both Germany and Japan, respectively and for very different reasons, well, far, far, far more evil and suffering would have befallen planet earth and its inhabitants. Had I been around then and elected not to involve myself because it caused me stress and discomfort and pain and unhappiness, well, I do not believe that would have been the right choice in the grand scheme of the universe.
So, what I am saying is that, just for myself, totally focusing on my own mental health well-being may not actually always be the morally correct decision. Which I find quite difficult. Sometimes, pain is required in order to do the right thing. Child birth and child rearing are painful, often, but we don't abandon our kids when they are misbehaving, because that would be wrong. Doing 7 years of brutal residency was extremely painful, but it had to be done in order to save lives that otherwise would likely have been lost. Etc.
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I guess for me I pay some attention...like when we get an R president I donate more to nature preservation etc., but I don’t march for it or anything. I still check the voting guide before voting but I get a condensed version not weeks of it. It’s just not overloading yourself... not just ignoring everything. Let’s say you see 1000 pieces of badness watching the local news. Switch to reading the news and you just stop at 200, there’s no waiting for the weather. I don’t want to spend all my time being outraged you know but I’m still aware. I do the best I can to help while not immersing myself in the muck. I realize things ebb and flow, some of this comes from living in the Midwest. They say if you don’t like the weather just wait a minute, we can have shorts weather and snow in the same day. Having a president I don’t like I can’t change for example but I can counter by doing the best I can for people and the planet. Ill vote again next time. I try to assess whether me being worried about it will change the situation or not. Take Covid, I’ve got a mask, I stay in, it’s not 100% but it’s the best I can do. You don’t have to be 100% to be effective. 95% is still great.if something is major you’ll see it even with limited attention. You’re not going to miss Hitler by watching only 20 minutes of news a day. It’s not a zero/100 kind of thing. If you’ll notice there’s still an electrical box in photo two, nobody’s going to think it’s a pristine mountain top. The point is making it better not omitting everything you don’t like.
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Hugs!
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