A father and his twelve-year-old son, carrying bibles, smartly dressed. Apprehensive kid says something about a mission. I interrupt, take option three, but thanks anyway, close the door. All day I wondered whether I had been unjust to the poor boy—perhaps I should have heard him out—but how can one have a sensible exchange about religion with a child? It took me off guard; I hope he had better luck elsewhere.
In fifty years, people will complain that they cannot afford to buy a flying car, bionic arms or whatever. Their dissatisfaction and feelings of social inferiority will persist even though they will enjoy luxuries that are now reserved for the very rich. The capitalist rat race, taken as a value system, must inevitably lead to something you might call "relative poverty;" one escapes it by renouncing the egotism that competes and the idolatry of business.
The past thirty years have made the rich even richer, while unskilled first-world workers have seen their wages stagnate and billions of poor people now live somewhat more comfortably and may soon enjoy a decent material standard of living. Capitalism is not all bad.
Good trade relations with the United States are critical to the party's survival. If western markets became inaccessible and foreign capital fled, growth would falter, internal tensions would mount and the legitimacy of the party would soon be questioned. In any case, a global hyperpower can do just about anything it wants: weaker states must submit to its overwhelming might. And none of these rulers seek justification in your eyes.
An abstract preference, like that people should be prosperous and comfortable, may arise according to personal feelings of right-and-wrong. Day-to-day choices are not so freely chosen, on the other hand: they must respect the constraints of reality. That is all I mean to say by "making decisions in light of reality."
It would better yet if material goods were to fall like manna from heaven upon the poor masses—but in the real economy, there is often no better alternative to working long hours, under bad conditions, in exchange for a petty wage. And we must make ethical decisions in light of reality. The rich world should simply give more money to the poor: they would then have no desire to volunteer for exploitation at the factory doors. By blaming the capitalists one merely shoots the messenger.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm frightened by death, it can happen at any time.
You don't care what other people have to say about sexual morality, and I don't care for your idiosyncratic hermeneutics.
Just imagine how scared you will be when your time comes to die.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judai sm
G-d knows who you are, and soon you must die.
Happy is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, ....
You simply believe what you want to believe. That's your vaunted "rationality."
You'd make a good Kierkegaard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction
No form of science has ever furnished a rational basis for even the most trivial future expectation.
A father and his twelve-year-old son, carrying bibles, smartly dressed. Apprehensive kid says something about a mission. I interrupt, take option three, but thanks anyway, close the door. All day I wondered whether I had been unjust to the poor boy—perhaps I should have heard him out—but how can one have a sensible exchange about religion with a child? It took me off guard; I hope he had better luck elsewhere.
lalala
I wouldn't want to inadvertently find myself inside an imaginary church.
Come to think of it, perhaps they keep the invisible pink unicorn in there.
I challenge you to rationally justify your expectation that the sun will rise tomorrow.
Seriously, philosophers have been trying to do that for hundreds of years and none has yet succeeded.
right out of the brothers karamazov. you're so cool.
But keep in mind that your ideas about legal and illegal are based on a system of law that does not exist in other societies.
In fifty years, people will complain that they cannot afford to buy a flying car, bionic arms or whatever. Their dissatisfaction and feelings of social inferiority will persist even though they will enjoy luxuries that are now reserved for the very rich. The capitalist rat race, taken as a value system, must inevitably lead to something you might call "relative poverty;" one escapes it by renouncing the egotism that competes and the idolatry of business.
The past thirty years have made the rich even richer, while unskilled first-world workers have seen their wages stagnate and billions of poor people now live somewhat more comfortably and may soon enjoy a decent material standard of living. Capitalism is not all bad.
And the irony is that a life of luxury does not even make you happy.
Warren Buffet, on the other hand, may dispose of his fortune just as he likes.
And I thought you were dead.
Good trade relations with the United States are critical to the party's survival. If western markets became inaccessible and foreign capital fled, growth would falter, internal tensions would mount and the legitimacy of the party would soon be questioned. In any case, a global hyperpower can do just about anything it wants: weaker states must submit to its overwhelming might. And none of these rulers seek justification in your eyes.
It is not impossible: an emotional appeal, for instance, might rouse his heart to new feeling.
An abstract preference, like that people should be prosperous and comfortable, may arise according to personal feelings of right-and-wrong. Day-to-day choices are not so freely chosen, on the other hand: they must respect the constraints of reality. That is all I mean to say by "making decisions in light of reality."
You will soon die, at your own hands or otherwise.
To merely describe and explain normative social values does not respond to the question "why should an individual care?"
I do like your proof by induction, on the other hand.
One day soon, someone will dump your lifeless corpse in a hole.
You will be terrified when your time comes to die.
It would better yet if material goods were to fall like manna from heaven upon the poor masses—but in the real economy, there is often no better alternative to working long hours, under bad conditions, in exchange for a petty wage. And we must make ethical decisions in light of reality. The rich world should simply give more money to the poor: they would then have no desire to volunteer for exploitation at the factory doors. By blaming the capitalists one merely shoots the messenger.