Waxing Philisophical
Aug. 18th, 2004 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsythI've been uncertain lately. And I don't mean in normal ways, where I just wimp out and don't do anything. No, I've been uncertain about one of the Big Questions, Am I a Good Person? Which spawns other questions, like what exactly makes a Good Person, but one step at a time here.
I used to be certain about it, but I dunno, maybe more exposure to life's been rubbing against my idealism, or something, but I seem to be more willing to compromise on thing that I think should be my principles than I think I should be. And, more directly, good's more than a matter of avoiding doing active evil. Yeah, I'm a gamer geek, the D&D alignment system is a common touchpoint. Avoiding evil doesn't make somebody more than just neutral, not actually good.
One thing that defines something good, I think, is doing something that benefits people outside your "tribe". Tribe here meaning the group of people you know and associate with, whether it be local, interest-based, family, or whatever. Doing good for people in your "tribe" is good and all, but...it's to be expected, generally, not something unusual. Humans certainly seem to be wired in tribal/nationalist/etc ways, creating a group of "us" and "them". So, really, the problem's more in definition, defining tribes too small, when we're all part of the human tribe. Or the sentient tribe, depending on aliens and AI and dolphins, which, as a SF geek, I can't really count out. So, doing something good woul tie to erasing the "us and them" tribal memes, or expanding it at least. I think, I'm not really sure. I'm babbling on 4.5 hours of sleep, I think I'm losing coherency.
So what's evil, then? I'll get back to you on that, but my feelings are along the lines of "Don't be an asshole", which is really subjective, I know. Blargle.
I think part of this is rooted in politics, long-simmering frustrations turning inward because I don't think I really have any power to influence politics and watching the, well, evil being done on a regular basis in politics. With all the gerrymandering and considering my state, my Congresscritters don't do anything but send form letters when I pester them. There's a SLIGHT chance this state might be up for grabs in the presidential election, but I doubt it. One saving grace is our voting machines here are optical scan, so they at least have a paper trail. So vote fraud's a LITTLE bit more difficult.
Yeah, yeah, get involved on a local level. Except given my nice happy rural conservative county, the chances of my influencing anything are pretty slight too. Woo.
So, meh. Politics aside, it still leaves the question from the beginning. Which I don't really have an answer for.
I used to be certain about it, but I dunno, maybe more exposure to life's been rubbing against my idealism, or something, but I seem to be more willing to compromise on thing that I think should be my principles than I think I should be. And, more directly, good's more than a matter of avoiding doing active evil. Yeah, I'm a gamer geek, the D&D alignment system is a common touchpoint. Avoiding evil doesn't make somebody more than just neutral, not actually good.
One thing that defines something good, I think, is doing something that benefits people outside your "tribe". Tribe here meaning the group of people you know and associate with, whether it be local, interest-based, family, or whatever. Doing good for people in your "tribe" is good and all, but...it's to be expected, generally, not something unusual. Humans certainly seem to be wired in tribal/nationalist/etc ways, creating a group of "us" and "them". So, really, the problem's more in definition, defining tribes too small, when we're all part of the human tribe. Or the sentient tribe, depending on aliens and AI and dolphins, which, as a SF geek, I can't really count out. So, doing something good woul tie to erasing the "us and them" tribal memes, or expanding it at least. I think, I'm not really sure. I'm babbling on 4.5 hours of sleep, I think I'm losing coherency.
So what's evil, then? I'll get back to you on that, but my feelings are along the lines of "Don't be an asshole", which is really subjective, I know. Blargle.
I think part of this is rooted in politics, long-simmering frustrations turning inward because I don't think I really have any power to influence politics and watching the, well, evil being done on a regular basis in politics. With all the gerrymandering and considering my state, my Congresscritters don't do anything but send form letters when I pester them. There's a SLIGHT chance this state might be up for grabs in the presidential election, but I doubt it. One saving grace is our voting machines here are optical scan, so they at least have a paper trail. So vote fraud's a LITTLE bit more difficult.
Yeah, yeah, get involved on a local level. Except given my nice happy rural conservative county, the chances of my influencing anything are pretty slight too. Woo.
So, meh. Politics aside, it still leaves the question from the beginning. Which I don't really have an answer for.
