So, I’ve been chatting with my buddies lately, and it’s turned into a bunch of debates about right and wrong. I think I have a pretty solid moral compass, I’m not bragging haha, but most people I know can’t really explain why something’s right or wrong without getting all circular or contradicting themselves.
So, how do you figure out what to do? No judgment, just curious. I’ll share my thoughts below.
Thanks!
Edit: Oh, all you lil’ philosophers have brought me a cornicopia of thoughts and ideas. I’m going to take my time responding, I’m like Treebeard, never wanna be hasty.
For the last year or so I’ve just been trying not to kill myself
- don’t be an asshole
- everything is allowed as long as nobody is getting hurt
- act when you see something wrong
- when you are able to help do so
- in all other cases mind your own business
everything is allowed as long as nobody is getting hurt
Context is important here. Oftentimes someone is getting hurt, you just don’t know who or when. A very fine line on this bullet.
It’s worse than that. Situations where something causes no harm to literally anyone are few and far between. Even less often you have a full and clear picture of a situation. Usually it’s a choice between who gets hurt to what extent and based on what you know you just try to minimize the damage. You will get it wrong a lot.
Life is complicated and all we can do is to try our best and hope others will too.
Very well put
Do no harm but take no shit.
Pee when you have the chance.
When going out into the cold during the winter, especially if you are going on a bit of multi hour journey … poop first, even if you don’t feel like it.
How do you poop when you don’t feel like it?
Or just
shitpiss on the floor 🎵I’m caught in a loop.
Hahaha, I know right!
Don’t be a dick.
Number one rule I have.
Beat me to it.
Don’t be a dick, don’t make anyone’s life worse out of indifference or even temporary malice, don’t make your own life harder because of the aforementioned, and the greatest accomplishment would be to make someone else’s life measurably, permanently better and have no need of credit or compensation for the act.
The problem with it is, everyone defines “dicky” behavior differently.
Try to be as unlike the cuurent US administration as possible?
Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.
Not if youre being a cunt.
To crush your enemies, See them driven before you, And to hear the lamentation of their women.
Conquer the things stopping you from what you want to do. This can be poverty, people, or circumstance. See those things that you have beaten lie at your feet, and revel in the outcries of the things that you now have bested.
Be kind to others and let go of attachments. Have lived a very happy and successful life by doing just those two things.
The Parable of the Teacup
"Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
The Parable of the Strawberry
"A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!"
A good starting place is considering what society would look like if everyone did whatever thing.
Everyone steals - doesn’t work
Everyone murders - dosen’t work
ect.
Another approach is the Terry Pratchett argument that everything boils down to just not treating people like things.
So, like the Kantian categorical imperative?
- etc.
Never drink alcohol alone.
That doesn’t save me from bad environment, but it prevents a Huge otherwise potential risk
I recently have added a don’t eat/drink sugar alone for me 😊
Don’t be a dick.
Shut up, Wesley
Everyone here is saying “don’t be a dick”. That is not sufficient. That just makes you middling, not good. To be good, you must also stop people who ARE being dicks.
Try to make life better for yourself and for everyone else. Try to have compassion for everyone. You don’t have to agree with them or support what they do, but treat them as having worth.
