You are right: I “have never had to live in the wild[er]ness where groups of people are required to take turns to protect the rest”. But I'm interested in ethics for the 21st Century and beyond — not in the kind of constraints and evolutionary challenges our ancestors faced in the past.
Still, I have scuba-dived (always in pairs), sky-dived (strapped to an instructor), mountain-climbed (both as leader and as belayer), and rode motorbikes with friends. I literally put my life in the hands of other people (often complete strangers), and occasionally even had their lives in mine. We all survived.
None of that required “love” or any other feeling, and not even counting their lives as equally valuable as mine. I didn't love those people, and they didn't love me. In most occasions, money was exchanged, and a contract was signed.
If a dangerous animal had attacked, or a boulder had fallen upon us, I would not have sheltered my peer with my own body, or sacrifice myself so that they could survive. And I know they would act in the same way.
More mundane: I trust lots of men with my security each and every day, and some of them risk their lives (drivers, policemen, soldiers, etc). No love needed.
That rule is about feelings, and I think moral theories should not prescribe feelings — only actions.
And if we translated that rule from sentiment into action, I suspect it would be abhorrent: I think a world where we valued our own life and well-being and the life and well-being of a random stranger the same would be a disaster.
Reading #Dynomight explaining #DerekParfit I realise that just as #liberalism/#libertarianism is the most inclusive political/economic system because it allows for other orders to emerge within it, #consequentialism may be the most inclusive moral theory because it may contain other systems just by redefining what a “good outcome” is.
That is:
A group of free individuals (liberalism) may enter voluntary agreements and commit to redistributing their wealth (socialism), transferring all power to a certain person (autocracy), abiding by rules decided by the majority (democracy), etc.
A consequentialist, in its narrowest definition, is free to conclude that the best possible outcome is one in which they and their special ones enjoy the best of life (egoism), one where certain rules are obeyed most strictly (deontology), one where all actions align perfectly with the word of god (theological voluntarism), etc. — and to act accordingly.
Useful taxonomy of moral theories (#DerekParfit via #Dynomight)
https://quillette.com/2022/07/23/stop-sharing-political-memes/
I agree with the sentiment, although “memes” is too broad a category. A quote is a #meme; a blog post is a meme; a chart is a meme. And all that may be useful to advance political understanding
So I'd rather say “stop sharing **simplistic and confrontational** political memes”. That's the truly corrosive, mind-numbing stuff.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/07/stop-drinking-now.html
Fully agree with #TylerCowen on this one.
Last night I dreamt that I went to tutoring with my #literature professor, someone whom I admired greatly (entirely fictional character).
We were casually talking #books and getting along very well. Then he asked me what I was reading at the moment. I said volume three of Proust's “In Search of Lost time”, and his face changed immediately.
He looked very serious, and told me we'd go right then to my place to grab the book and burn it, because it was a waste of time. It was clearly all in good spirits, and he was playing a certain role to amuse me — but at the same time there was no doubt in my mind that he was intent on doing what he had said.
So I had to play along. We walked together to my place, while I questioned him. He explained to me that yes, Proust is indeed good, but that investing so much time in reading >4,000 very dense pages was simply not rational. Very poor ROI. I kinda agreed and felt somewhat relieved of my self-imposed burden of reading the entire series, although I hated the idea of halting the project and burning the book (never mind that I'm reading on an e-reader!).
#MissEntropy walked me up at that moment, and so I don't know what was going to happen in my #dream.
And so I'll have to keep on reading #Proust.
What a curious reading.
I struggle to see the connection between my criticism of home-delivered food and #wokeism.
The Elect are probably the main consumers of home delivery, being mostly affluent urbanites with sleek smartphones, busy lives and a taste for ethnic food and whatever is trendy and immediate. Also, I'm going to claim some originality here — I don't recall reading anything like my toot on vox.com, quoted from AOC, or on the feed of The New York Times (I'm sure you'll be able to find something similar now, if you look for it; I'm just saying I don't think I unconsciously imbibed the idea from woke sources).
I tend to think that we, citizens of rich countries, need less consumerism, more austerity, a higher tolerance to minor discomforts (eg hunger, boredom), and more awareness about the impact of our daily actions — in general. This (quick home-delivered food) is just a phenomenon where those ideas are quite salient, IMHO.
TIL about [_The Thing_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device))
@rastinza That's what I do, too.
tripu
boosted
“The word ‘politics’ is derived from the word ‘poly’, meaning ‘many’, and the word ‘ticks’, meaning ‘blood sucking parasites’.”
— Larry Hardiman
#Q4TD http://q4td.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-word-politics-is-derived-from-word.html
I order home-delivery very rarely, and when I do it I feel a strange guilt.
Home-delivered meals have always bothered me. It looks like the perfect example of overlooked irresponsible #consumerism.
You have a **fridge** where you can store food for days, a **freezer** where you can store food for months, **grocery stores and supermarkets** everywhere around you (some of them open during weekends or at night), convenient **online orders** and cheap **delivery** of those groceries…
…and yet you need that a local restaurant wraps their stuff in way more plastic and paper than is necessary, and that some kid jumps on a dirty moped and whizzes dangerously through the city to get to your door _right now_?
At 11PM?
@rigo I'm just starting to learn more about Parfait's views, but apparently #Kantianism was indeed one of three major schools of thought he tried to reconcile into a unified theory of morality…
Probably the best distillation of #morality in one sentence, by #DerekParfit:
> _“Everyone ought to follow the principles whose universal acceptance everyone could rationally will.”_
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/09/05/how-to-be-good
@rastinza I agree it is expensive in absolute terms. In many regular bars and cafés in Spain you would pay little more than €1 for an espresso or a macchiato. But Starbucks is always expensive, and I'm used to seeing “coffee” there for €3, €4 or even more… Thanks for those kind words :)
tripu
boosted
Lit up city strip; Dusk by Max Hay
