Please indulge me in some Sunday morning philosophy.
Often, perhaps more often than we’d like, life offers the opportunity to empathize with our fellow human beings, to feel a measure of their grief as they struggle with a challenge. In the theater of the mind, you stand in place for lead role and ask yourself, “how would I feel? What would I do?” The sting of injustice drives you make it right. Then frustration reminds you, there will be no making it right, only making it better.
Every day, I ask myself how I can improve the world. Every day, I am keenly aware of the violence that lurks beneath the surface of many human interactions. So many of us are hurt, and the only tools we think we have involve hurting others. We tell each other we have no choice. How many times have we heard there is no choice but to start a war? How many times has the excuse been that if we don’t force you, you won’t do the right thing? How many times has a parent raised his hand to strike a child with the intent to bring peace to the world?
We do have choice. Our lives are values that exists for a brief moment of time. We can surrender to suffering and heartbreak, or we can cooperate to improve life. I choose the latter. I accept that what little power I have in the universe, the most effective actions are those closest to me. One day, there will be no wars, no murders, no violence. I won’t experience it, but I will help it come to be. Closest to me, most precious to me, offering the most hope–are my children.
I want my children to learn that all good works on this earth are voluntary. When the bureaucrat from thousands of miles away decrees that I shall donate part of my life for the benefit of others, and that I shall do so or face death, we all suffered. It exploits our good natures and perverts the meaning of charity. And it’s not enough to endure this torment. We can demonstrate an alternative.
My principle: meaningful charity is personal and voluntary. I don’t consider the money that the government takes from me to be meaningful charity, regardless of where that money goes eventually. The ends never justify the means. I don’t consider generic, anonymous donations to be particularly effective or meaningful, either. For me, it’s never about sacrifice–it’s about making things better. And it’s about demonstrating how things ought to be.
Now let’s make this concrete. There’s a little boy in my community who’s recently been diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). It’s a brain cancer that’s difficult to treat and offers little hope. I’m having a tough time allowing myself to contemplate the full magnitude of what it would mean to me to be in that situation. There will be no justice. We can only hope to make it a little better than would be otherwise. Time will slip away, and his parents will need help with bills. This is one of those opportunities I mentioned at the start of this post.
Click to get the full-sized Marty O’s flyerClick to get the Kinder’s flyer
A pair of local restaurants are running promotions today where 15% of purchases will go to the family. That’s great. It gets word out. Three cheers for local business owners doing what they can to aid people in the community. Marty O’s Pizzeria is offering a buffet today. If you choose to go, print out the flyer to the left.
All Kinder’s Meats locations are also donating 15%. You need to bring a different flyer there. Click the image to the right, or download a PDF version.
Alternatively, and the plan that I feel will be most effective, is a direct donation of money. 100% sounds better than 15% to me. My understanding is that this is possible through lotsahelpinghands.com once you are accepted as a member.
Alex argues that if you care to convince people to fight an injustice, such as the torture of innocents, do not talk about how terrible the injustice is. Spin it as a minor issue that can be easily fixed, or turn it into an us versus them scenario. It’s clear this strategy works on lesser issues, such as with office politics.
If the world is just, only the guilty are tortured. So believers in a just world are more likely to think that the people who are tortured are guilty. Perhaps especially so if they experience the torture closely and so feel a greater need to overcome cognitive dissonance. On the other hand, those farther away from the experience of torture may feel less need to justify it and they may be more likely to identify the tortured as victims. The theory of moral typecasting suggests that victims are also more likely to be seen as innocents (a la Jesus).
The battle over freedom of use of digital files sure is dramatic. Kim Dotcom is back, but will he win in the end? It scares me to think about these battles being the start of a global war in cyberspace. If it’s Dotcom, Assange and Anonymous on one side versus the RIAA, MPAA and FBI on the other, who will win and who will be collateral damage?
The much anticipated rebirth of Megaupload took place in the last few hours with interest living up to expectations. In less than one hour the site picked up 100,000 new registrations, going on to 500,000 and beyond just a few hours later. As the site struggled to cope with demand it became unresponsive in the face of an unprecedented flood of users eager to test out the new file-hosting site. Just a few minutes ago the launch party at Kim Dotcom’s mansion began, with some interesting reveals.
Religion cannot and should not be replaced by atheism. Religion needs to go away and not be replaced by anything. Atheism is not a religion. It’s the absence of religion, and that’s a wonderful thing.
Religion is not morality. Theists ask me, “If there’s no god, what would stop me from raping and killing everyone I want to.” My answer is always: “I, myself, have raped and killed everyone I want to … and the number for both is zero.” Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality. Morality is not bribery or threats. Religion is bribery and threats. Humans have morality. We don’t need religion.
