10-03-2006, 12:44 AM
It's interesting that a few of you are trying to justify kindness as wrong.
Let's take this 'Free Hugs' campaign. Did a lot of people do it just as an impulse? Yes. But what about the small amount of people who really NEEDED a hug? Somebody who was about to commit suicide, has financial problems, needs a push in the right direction. Something as simple as a hug could help give these people the confidence they need to try to work out their problems.
Marine, quite frankly, your being an apathetic asshole. Society will always be flawed, but what's wrong with the people who try to make a change for the better in it? Those people who, say, fix houses for the old and poor or run food drives for those who can't feed themselves? Humans have the most powerful minds on the Earth and debatably in the galaxy. Instead of using it to follow their 'let the weak die out and the strong prosper' mentality, which the world follows by itself, we try to help other people who normally would not make it on their own. Look at Steven Hawkings; if he were any other animal on Earth, he'd be dead within days. Did we follow the survival of the fittest mentality? No, we cared for him and educated him, and look what we got; one of the most intelligent and important figures in modern science.
We do kind things for a desire to make ourselves feel good, this is obvious. But what's wrong with making somebody else feel good in the process? Let's go out on a limb and define 'good feelings' on a 1-10 scale. If helping someone out gave you AND the person you helped a '3' feeling, and, oh, I don't know, let's say, watching a movie also gave you a '3' feeling, which one would you choose? The one that benefits solely you, or the one that acts on our moral impulses to help others (by the way, the assumption here is that both required the same amount of effort, work, etc.)?
Am I an extremist who would do something like that? HELL NO, I'm just not that devoted. But somebody with that desire to help others and the devotion to that cause should be admired, not put down. I'll do little things like help an old lady with her bags or retrieve a ball that rolled into the street that some kids were using. Help someone out, make yourself feel good, make someone else feel good.
Let's take this 'Free Hugs' campaign. Did a lot of people do it just as an impulse? Yes. But what about the small amount of people who really NEEDED a hug? Somebody who was about to commit suicide, has financial problems, needs a push in the right direction. Something as simple as a hug could help give these people the confidence they need to try to work out their problems.
Marine, quite frankly, your being an apathetic asshole. Society will always be flawed, but what's wrong with the people who try to make a change for the better in it? Those people who, say, fix houses for the old and poor or run food drives for those who can't feed themselves? Humans have the most powerful minds on the Earth and debatably in the galaxy. Instead of using it to follow their 'let the weak die out and the strong prosper' mentality, which the world follows by itself, we try to help other people who normally would not make it on their own. Look at Steven Hawkings; if he were any other animal on Earth, he'd be dead within days. Did we follow the survival of the fittest mentality? No, we cared for him and educated him, and look what we got; one of the most intelligent and important figures in modern science.
We do kind things for a desire to make ourselves feel good, this is obvious. But what's wrong with making somebody else feel good in the process? Let's go out on a limb and define 'good feelings' on a 1-10 scale. If helping someone out gave you AND the person you helped a '3' feeling, and, oh, I don't know, let's say, watching a movie also gave you a '3' feeling, which one would you choose? The one that benefits solely you, or the one that acts on our moral impulses to help others (by the way, the assumption here is that both required the same amount of effort, work, etc.)?
Am I an extremist who would do something like that? HELL NO, I'm just not that devoted. But somebody with that desire to help others and the devotion to that cause should be admired, not put down. I'll do little things like help an old lady with her bags or retrieve a ball that rolled into the street that some kids were using. Help someone out, make yourself feel good, make someone else feel good.