Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
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Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
I've never given 100% to anything and, after nearly 60 years, I'm thinking about giving it a try. However, every time I think I'm ready to make a move, I argue against it. I thought I'd come here and pose some questions, the answers to which might move me off dead center. If anyone knows of a good book which addresses these things, I'd like to read it. Thanks.
I'd like to do something good but I'm not sure what good is. It asks a question: Good for who? Good for what? The answer is always different.
If I conserve a gallon of water, doesn't that just encourage them (people, population growth, land development, etc.)? We know it won't go to reserved water rights for fish, animals, etc. so . . . if I have a water right, why not waste it?
Likewise with gasoline: If I conserve a gallon of gas, doesn't that just increase supply, thus reducing price and encouraging Rush Limbaugh to laugh all the way down the road in his Hummer?
I know improving the life of the poverty-stricken, along with education, is supposed to reduce their rates of procreation. However, if the environmental footprint of a better-off person is so much larger than many poverty-stricken people combined, where is the net gain in shipping my money or energy or efforts to the poor to improve their life?
In short, doesn't helping people just encourage them, thus threatening them long term? Can't working against the perceived interests of people actually inure to their benefit? On Scalia's concentric circles of care, can't caring for those entities mid-way in on the circle (strangers) actually threaten entities which lie further out (species, water, air, space), thus threatening the necessities of life in the center (self) and those closer in (family, friends, loved ones)?
What is good and why should I endeavor to do it? I don't want to give 100%, holding nothing in reserve, unless I feel good about the investment and the risk. On the other hand, I don't want to wake up dead someday regretting that I never went balls out for a good reason.
I could go big (help the world) or go small (help my family and small sphere) but what does both?
Flame away.
I'd like to do something good but I'm not sure what good is. It asks a question: Good for who? Good for what? The answer is always different.
If I conserve a gallon of water, doesn't that just encourage them (people, population growth, land development, etc.)? We know it won't go to reserved water rights for fish, animals, etc. so . . . if I have a water right, why not waste it?
Likewise with gasoline: If I conserve a gallon of gas, doesn't that just increase supply, thus reducing price and encouraging Rush Limbaugh to laugh all the way down the road in his Hummer?
I know improving the life of the poverty-stricken, along with education, is supposed to reduce their rates of procreation. However, if the environmental footprint of a better-off person is so much larger than many poverty-stricken people combined, where is the net gain in shipping my money or energy or efforts to the poor to improve their life?
In short, doesn't helping people just encourage them, thus threatening them long term? Can't working against the perceived interests of people actually inure to their benefit? On Scalia's concentric circles of care, can't caring for those entities mid-way in on the circle (strangers) actually threaten entities which lie further out (species, water, air, space), thus threatening the necessities of life in the center (self) and those closer in (family, friends, loved ones)?
What is good and why should I endeavor to do it? I don't want to give 100%, holding nothing in reserve, unless I feel good about the investment and the risk. On the other hand, I don't want to wake up dead someday regretting that I never went balls out for a good reason.
I could go big (help the world) or go small (help my family and small sphere) but what does both?
Flame away.
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Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
.
I think you have your head on straight.
Lately I have been drawn to about the same conclusions as you have stated above.
Life just happens. Let it.
I'm sure in the outer world it appears as if you have accomplished much. Perhaps, inside you are not happy with the outer window dressings. But the inner and out worlds that we exist within are just as much confusion for every individual.
Stick with it.
If you find yourself getting depressed, just do something... anything. Action usually stops most depression.
.
I think you have your head on straight.
Lately I have been drawn to about the same conclusions as you have stated above.
Life just happens. Let it.
I'm sure in the outer world it appears as if you have accomplished much. Perhaps, inside you are not happy with the outer window dressings. But the inner and out worlds that we exist within are just as much confusion for every individual.
Stick with it.
If you find yourself getting depressed, just do something... anything. Action usually stops most depression.
.
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Old guys who abandon the intent to harm, do a lot of good.I'd like to do something good but I'm not sure what good is. It asks a question: Good for who? Good for what? The answer is always different.
Help the old chipped cups, they are transitioning out and emptying out.
Point the young cups in the right direction before they fill up.
- Trevor Salyzyn
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- Location: Canada
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
What good is is entirely dependent on who you are. I doubt any amount of reading will change what you already ultimately perceive as good. But revealing biases is still progress. In that vein, here's a quiz that might show you what you value.
A mindful man needs few words.
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
“entirely.” An absolute term. Simple statements in absolute terms, most appreciated.Trevor Salyzyn wrote:What good is is entirely dependent on who you are.
The first sentence is understandable as a premise for a view.
I’ve known people who have the view: hate the sin and not the sinner. This suggests that good and evil somehow exist independent of “you.”
Sorting this all out gets to the root of how you think, not necessarily who you are, though there is probably a philosophy that says how you think is who you are. Is there?
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Just sleep, eat, piss, shit.
There's nothing else in life that has to be done.
Don't get involved with other things:
They're not the point.
Keep a low profile,
Sleep.
In the triple universe
When you're lower than your company
You should take the low seat.
Should you happen to be the superior one,
Don't get arrogant.
There's no absolute need to have close friends;
You're better off just keeping to yourself.
When you're without any worldly or religious obligations,
Don't keep on longing to acquire some!
If you let go of everything—
Everything, everything—
That's the real point!
Patrul Rinpoche
That being said, if I quit all that I do now, I'd be dependent on someone else to take care of me, and I don't relish that thought, and I don't think it's fair for others to be responsible for taking care of me. It's not that easy to just go off into the wild and survive alone, like the wandering hermits did...especially after you've been "domesticated" . But other than working and taking care of my own needs (roof over my head, and food, etc.), I really don't do much else...and I have lost the desire to be anyone, or become anything....so eat, sleep , shit & piss are the basics of my life....everything else is ego desires....which are not very strong in me anymore.
There's nothing else in life that has to be done.
Don't get involved with other things:
They're not the point.
Keep a low profile,
Sleep.
In the triple universe
When you're lower than your company
You should take the low seat.
Should you happen to be the superior one,
Don't get arrogant.
There's no absolute need to have close friends;
You're better off just keeping to yourself.
When you're without any worldly or religious obligations,
Don't keep on longing to acquire some!
If you let go of everything—
Everything, everything—
That's the real point!
Patrul Rinpoche
That being said, if I quit all that I do now, I'd be dependent on someone else to take care of me, and I don't relish that thought, and I don't think it's fair for others to be responsible for taking care of me. It's not that easy to just go off into the wild and survive alone, like the wandering hermits did...especially after you've been "domesticated" . But other than working and taking care of my own needs (roof over my head, and food, etc.), I really don't do much else...and I have lost the desire to be anyone, or become anything....so eat, sleep , shit & piss are the basics of my life....everything else is ego desires....which are not very strong in me anymore.
- Diebert van Rhijn
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- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:43 pm
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Such an arrogance, life drives you to many things all the same, it doesn't stop with shitting unless the rope is hung.K wrote:shit & piss are the basics of my life....everything else is ego desires....which are not very strong in me anymore.
- You have to understand "I do not exists".
-- unknown
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
That was a shitty thing to say :) Let's just say we're all full of it :)Diebert van Rhijn wrote:Such an arrogance
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
WORDS creates illusion. My words has no use. It represents nothing. It can't show you , guide you truth in anyway.
My words absolute crap in some way. In someway , if you see , it is not my words , it is the message behind words which could be the key to unlock your slave addiction to beliefs.
It can't be explained in words.
Words only project illusion of something...
When you unlearn everything including so called wisdom....you have to be completely helpless to see things...as they are.
You have to disown everything in order to own(see).
peace
unknown
I'm reading it D....some good shit...
My words absolute crap in some way. In someway , if you see , it is not my words , it is the message behind words which could be the key to unlock your slave addiction to beliefs.
It can't be explained in words.
Words only project illusion of something...
When you unlearn everything including so called wisdom....you have to be completely helpless to see things...as they are.
You have to disown everything in order to own(see).
peace
unknown
I'm reading it D....some good shit...
- Diebert van Rhijn
- Posts: 6469
- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:43 pm
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
It's arrogance to elevate shit & piss to "basics" of a life. Such cherry picking! Such a feeling you got it "figured out"!Kunga wrote:That was a shitty thing to say :) Let's just say we're all full of it :)Diebert van Rhijn wrote:Such an arrogance
It's arrogance to demote "everything else" to ego desires. Are you the superior judge?
It's arrogance to claim ego desires are not very strong after saying all the above.
Arrogance, however, is nothing wrong with as long as it's not hiding behind a false sense of modesty. Unknown was also drunk on a tiny microscopic truth he stumbled upon. He couldn't wait to vomit it over the forum like every other drunk cannot wait to bother his audience with - the warming glow...
- Trevor Salyzyn
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- Location: Canada
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
This turns opinions into facts, and I am not sure I am willing to make that mistake. Morality tells us what we should do; facts describe what is. The simple fact that I could disagree with the normative belief that we all should hate sins and not sinners without needing to add any further information proves that norms are not absolute. Morality is relative.Cahoot wrote:I’ve known people who have the view: hate the sin and not the sinner. This suggests that good and evil somehow exist independent of “you.”
I can one-up that. There is a philosophy that says how you think is how everything actually is. Protagoras said, "man is the measure of all things." Facts, in this light, are also relative. I guess I turned facts into opinions, which is the opposite of where we started.Cahoot wrote:there is probably a philosophy that says how you think is who you are. Is there?
Same information with a different twist. As Nietzsche said, "there are no facts, only interpretations."
A mindful man needs few words.
- Diebert van Rhijn
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- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:43 pm
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
And even that should not be taken too absolute. It's just saying that everything you might think you know or believe you sense, including the scientific fact, remains always the endpoint of a long train of interpretations, cultural shaping, mental habits, contextual reflection, instinctual responses and many other competing interpretive frameworks or theories. The original "thing" or "fact" remains illusive but that doesn't mean it can be denied -- there's just the truth that it's never a fixed target, frozen in mind , theory, time or place. You deal with it being part of the fluent interpreting -- inseparable!Trevor Salyzyn wrote:As Nietzsche said, "there are no facts, only interpretations."
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Well, we are all human beings.Kunga wrote:WORDS creates illusion. My words has no use. It represents nothing. It can't show you , guide you truth in anyway.
My words absolute crap in some way. In someway , if you see , it is not my words , it is the message behind words which could be the key to unlock your slave addiction to beliefs.
It can't be explained in words.
Words only project illusion of something...
When you unlearn everything including so called wisdom....you have to be completely helpless to see things...as they are.
You have to disown everything in order to own(see).
peace
unknown
I'm reading it D....some good shit...
Inability to prove otherwise does not prove the existence of otherwise.
Ever since words have been a part of human beings, words have been a part of every human being’s enlightenment.
So words serve that purpose. Maybe there’s more.
“Now I want you to get up off that shitter, go over to the window, and shout, ‘I’m mad as hell …’”
I remember that movie. :D
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
If it has not yet happened, when you do lose the desire to work and take care of your own needs, and yet you continue to work and take care of your own needs, then awareness about a lack of desire to be anyone, or a lack of desire to become anything, naturally expands. Awareness gains an altitude above desire’s landscape. Gets a larger view of what is.Kunga wrote: That being said, if I quit all that I do now, I'd be dependent on someone else to take care of me, and I don't relish that thought, and I don't think it's fair for others to be responsible for taking care of me. It's not that easy to just go off into the wild and survive alone, like the wandering hermits did...especially after you've been "domesticated" . But other than working and taking care of my own needs (roof over my head, and food, etc.), I really don't do much else...and I have lost the desire to be anyone, or become anything....so eat, sleep , shit & piss are the basics of my life....everything else is ego desires....which are not very strong in me anymore.
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Hi. My first time here. Brother I can relate. Just starting to get some perspective and control over my mind. 48 years old. All that time trying to find some kind of balance in it. I don't have to fight that war anymore so how or in what fashion might I address the compulsion to... What , help, validate myself, atone ? It seems that my greatest responsibility is to evolve until I see it , whatever it is. Cause till it's clear to me internally it's just data. I don't think it's about truth in the cold rational way. The universe is way smarter than me and it built me in this fashion emotion and logic. The trick isn't controling one or the other but being Concious
Of their function and operating them in harmony. I guess my point is brother u are already doing it. It's pressing foward eyes open, heart open. We can't understand yet but we can grow and in that growing play our role in the universe .
Of their function and operating them in harmony. I guess my point is brother u are already doing it. It's pressing foward eyes open, heart open. We can't understand yet but we can grow and in that growing play our role in the universe .
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
This turns fact (sin) into opinionTrevor wrote:This turns opinions into facts, and I am not sure I am willing to make that mistake. Morality tells us what we should do; facts describe what is. The simple fact that I could disagree with the normative belief that we all should hate sins and not sinners without needing to add any further information proves that norms are not absolute. Morality is relative.
And the presented basis of that opinion
Is that morality is relative.
However, the quote “hate the sin and not the sinner”
indicates that sin is identifiable as a factual principle
manifesting within the context of a relative situation,
and is not relative.
Thus, one need only find non-relative definitions of sin
To change the perception that the view is a mistake.
- Trevor Salyzyn
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Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Cahoot,
How does one find non-relative definitions of sin? I assume that if you want morality to be absolute, and you can't base it on facts without running into the is-ought problem, you are forced to create morality from thin air. You may as well be arguing about aesthetics: which set of morality is most beautiful is the one to choose. My different set of tastes gives me a different set of sins.
How does one find non-relative definitions of sin? I assume that if you want morality to be absolute, and you can't base it on facts without running into the is-ought problem, you are forced to create morality from thin air. You may as well be arguing about aesthetics: which set of morality is most beautiful is the one to choose. My different set of tastes gives me a different set of sins.
A mindful man needs few words.
-
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Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
As morality of the duality of good and evil is the product of the deluded belief in self, it is indeed relative. However, righteousness, being a product of wisdom of the nondual law of cause and effect/law of the Spirit of life is not relative, it is absolute.Cahoot: This turns fact (sin) into opinionTrevor wrote:
This turns opinions into facts, and I am not sure I am willing to make that mistake. Morality tells us what we should do; facts describe what is. The simple fact that I could disagree with the normative belief that we all should hate sins and not sinners without needing to add any further information proves that norms are not absolute. Morality is relative.
And the presented basis of that opinion
Is that morality is relative.
In the context of the original post, I cannot think of anything more worthy "to do with one's life" than to strive to become perfectly righteous.
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
In addition to movingalways’ example, we can say that as a natural law, truth exists within every situation (because like transcendence, truth can only exist in the present). Therefore, we can say that which seeks to alter natural law is a sin.Trevor Salyzyn wrote:Cahoot,
How does one find non-relative definitions of sin? I assume that if you want morality to be absolute, and you can't base it on facts without running into the is-ought problem, you are forced to create morality from thin air. You may as well be arguing about aesthetics: which set of morality is most beautiful is the one to choose. My different set of tastes gives me a different set of sins.
Particulars are not a contradiction to this absolute.
- Trevor Salyzyn
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- Location: Canada
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Cahoot,
Isn't the desire to modify natural law (sin) itself a part of natural law? Nothing that exists is outside of natural law; hence, sin is nothing. Beneath which and contradiction aside, without an "ought", there's no particular reason to sin or not to sin.
What you are describing is not good versus evil, but good taste versus poor taste. What seeks to alter natural law is one's conception of beauty. Ugly is discarded, and beautiful is preferred.
Isn't the desire to modify natural law (sin) itself a part of natural law? Nothing that exists is outside of natural law; hence, sin is nothing. Beneath which and contradiction aside, without an "ought", there's no particular reason to sin or not to sin.
What you are describing is not good versus evil, but good taste versus poor taste. What seeks to alter natural law is one's conception of beauty. Ugly is discarded, and beautiful is preferred.
A mindful man needs few words.
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Woe to the one receiving righteous wrathmovingalways wrote:As morality of the duality of good and evil is the product of the deluded belief in self, it is indeed relative. However, righteousness, being a product of wisdom of the nondual law of cause and effect/law of the Spirit of life is not relative, it is absolute.Cahoot: This turns fact (sin) into opinionTrevor wrote:
This turns opinions into facts, and I am not sure I am willing to make that mistake. Morality tells us what we should do; facts describe what is. The simple fact that I could disagree with the normative belief that we all should hate sins and not sinners without needing to add any further information proves that norms are not absolute. Morality is relative.
And the presented basis of that opinion
Is that morality is relative.
In the context of the original post, I cannot think of anything more worthy "to do with one's life" than to strive to become perfectly righteous.
For those who know the burning know
The only redemption through hell
Is forgiveness of all that is
All that was
While compassion enslaves
The woeful one
Ego
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Well the truth is, the desire to change natural law is not present in every situation, therefore the desire to change natural law is not a natural law. It is at best some sort of interpretation of a natural law, or a condition affecting natural law.Trevor Salyzyn wrote:Cahoot,
Isn't the desire to modify natural law (sin) itself a part of natural law? Nothing that exists is outside of natural law; hence, sin is nothing. Beneath which and contradiction aside, without an "ought", there's no particular reason to sin or not to sin.
What you are describing is not good versus evil, but good taste versus poor taste. What seeks to alter natural law is one's conception of beauty. Ugly is discarded, and beautiful is preferred.
Contrast this to truth, which is a natural law, and is present in every situation. (;
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Well, you can look at it this way …Huck Mucus wrote:I've never given 100% to anything and, after nearly 60 years, I'm thinking about giving it a try. However, every time I think I'm ready to make a move, I argue against it. I thought I'd come here and pose some questions, the answers to which might move me off dead center. If anyone knows of a good book which addresses these things, I'd like to read it. Thanks.
I'd like to do something good but I'm not sure what good is. It asks a question: Good for who? Good for what? The answer is always different.
If I conserve a gallon of water, doesn't that just encourage them (people, population growth, land development, etc.)? We know it won't go to reserved water rights for fish, animals, etc. so . . . if I have a water right, why not waste it?
Likewise with gasoline: If I conserve a gallon of gas, doesn't that just increase supply, thus reducing price and encouraging Rush Limbaugh to laugh all the way down the road in his Hummer?
I know improving the life of the poverty-stricken, along with education, is supposed to reduce their rates of procreation. However, if the environmental footprint of a better-off person is so much larger than many poverty-stricken people combined, where is the net gain in shipping my money or energy or efforts to the poor to improve their life?
In short, doesn't helping people just encourage them, thus threatening them long term? Can't working against the perceived interests of people actually inure to their benefit? On Scalia's concentric circles of care, can't caring for those entities mid-way in on the circle (strangers) actually threaten entities which lie further out (species, water, air, space), thus threatening the necessities of life in the center (self) and those closer in (family, friends, loved ones)?
What is good and why should I endeavor to do it? I don't want to give 100%, holding nothing in reserve, unless I feel good about the investment and the risk. On the other hand, I don't want to wake up dead someday regretting that I never went balls out for a good reason.
I could go big (help the world) or go small (help my family and small sphere) but what does both?
Flame away.
Writing the novel of life in present time.
He is like a cat. He has tremendous focus when necessary, when the situation calls for it. With this comes effortless patience, even balance, and an ability to remain alert to the senses without a single distracting thought.
But he has one foot in the spirit world, so deluded human motivations have little power over him. In many ways this is a curse. He is rendered ineffectual in the accumulation of things, and in counting time. In this sense he is also like a cat.
But unlike a cat, he is not trapped in the present. He realizes. He realizes that, like all things that exist, he has a purpose other than what ego projects onto life, and like every natural law exists to be found, this purpose exists to be found.
Is it interesting so far?
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Huck - The way to deal with things if you have no driving compulsion to do 'good', is to just deal with whats in front of you. If you see something you can do, just do it but DO NOT go looking for things. I am now 68 years old and I have resisted the urge to 'do something', as you have found out, whatever you do has an impact elsewhere. Leading a life of grace within yourself is a fine ideal but my view is that the stream of life has no plan or destination.Huck Mucus wrote:I've never given 100% to anything and, after nearly 60 years, I'm thinking about giving it a try. However, every time I think I'm ready to make a move, I argue against it. I thought I'd come here and pose some questions, the answers to which might move me off dead center. If anyone knows of a good book which addresses these things, I'd like to read it. Thanks.
I'd like to do something good but I'm not sure what good is. It asks a question: Good for who? Good for what? The answer is always different.
If I conserve a gallon of water, doesn't that just encourage them (people, population growth, land development, etc.)? We know it won't go to reserved water rights for fish, animals, etc. so . . . if I have a water right, why not waste it?
Likewise with gasoline: If I conserve a gallon of gas, doesn't that just increase supply, thus reducing price and encouraging Rush Limbaugh to laugh all the way down the road in his Hummer?
I know improving the life of the poverty-stricken, along with education, is supposed to reduce their rates of procreation. However, if the environmental footprint of a better-off person is so much larger than many poverty-stricken people combined, where is the net gain in shipping my money or energy or efforts to the poor to improve their life?
In short, doesn't helping people just encourage them, thus threatening them long term? Can't working against the perceived interests of people actually inure to their benefit? On Scalia's concentric circles of care, can't caring for those entities mid-way in on the circle (strangers) actually threaten entities which lie further out (species, water, air, space), thus threatening the necessities of life in the center (self) and those closer in (family, friends, loved ones)?
What is good and why should I endeavor to do it? I don't want to give 100%, holding nothing in reserve, unless I feel good about the investment and the risk. On the other hand, I don't want to wake up dead someday regretting that I never went balls out for a good reason.
I could go big (help the world) or go small (help my family and small sphere) but what does both?
Flame away.
I have noticed since my libido is not the all encompassing focus of my life, then other things stick their head up (snorts mildly). There are no guides apart from your conscience, or back slaps that substitute for a love of ones self without ego.
Nothing to do, Nowhere to go. If you feel the screaming need to try something you can't do more damage than our politicians.
Re: Help deciding what, if anything, to do with my life.
Ain’t it the truth.ardy wrote:Huck - The way to deal with things if you have no driving compulsion to do 'good', is to just deal with whats in front of you. If you see something you can do, just do it but DO NOT go looking for things. I am now 68 years old and I have resisted the urge to 'do something', as you have found out, whatever you do has an impact elsewhere. Leading a life of grace within yourself is a fine ideal but my view is that the stream of life has no plan or destination.Huck Mucus wrote:I've never given 100% to anything and, after nearly 60 years, I'm thinking about giving it a try. However, every time I think I'm ready to make a move, I argue against it. I thought I'd come here and pose some questions, the answers to which might move me off dead center. If anyone knows of a good book which addresses these things, I'd like to read it. Thanks.
I'd like to do something good but I'm not sure what good is. It asks a question: Good for who? Good for what? The answer is always different.
If I conserve a gallon of water, doesn't that just encourage them (people, population growth, land development, etc.)? We know it won't go to reserved water rights for fish, animals, etc. so . . . if I have a water right, why not waste it?
Likewise with gasoline: If I conserve a gallon of gas, doesn't that just increase supply, thus reducing price and encouraging Rush Limbaugh to laugh all the way down the road in his Hummer?
I know improving the life of the poverty-stricken, along with education, is supposed to reduce their rates of procreation. However, if the environmental footprint of a better-off person is so much larger than many poverty-stricken people combined, where is the net gain in shipping my money or energy or efforts to the poor to improve their life?
In short, doesn't helping people just encourage them, thus threatening them long term? Can't working against the perceived interests of people actually inure to their benefit? On Scalia's concentric circles of care, can't caring for those entities mid-way in on the circle (strangers) actually threaten entities which lie further out (species, water, air, space), thus threatening the necessities of life in the center (self) and those closer in (family, friends, loved ones)?
What is good and why should I endeavor to do it? I don't want to give 100%, holding nothing in reserve, unless I feel good about the investment and the risk. On the other hand, I don't want to wake up dead someday regretting that I never went balls out for a good reason.
I could go big (help the world) or go small (help my family and small sphere) but what does both?
Flame away.
I have noticed since my libido is not the all encompassing focus of my life, then other things stick their head up (snorts mildly). There are no guides apart from your conscience, or back slaps that substitute for a love of ones self without ego.
Nothing to do, Nowhere to go. If you feel the screaming need to try something you can't do more damage than our politicians.
That’s why the premise behind The Bucket List is shallow. Doesn’t ring true. Old timers usually know some version of the essence, and are sustained by the essence existent in every situation, rather than the situation itself. Contrary to literary fantasy, in modern free culture, adult males have yet to be warehoused into herds like cattle. Like the bucket list, that’s a fantasy. The closest to that is banding into packs, which describes corporate man, pack animal man. Alpha, beta, and so on. Cats, on the other hand, are either solitary or gangsters.