I Feel Like Crap
Physically, that is. Here's why:
I ate horrifically poorly today, and topped it all off with a bunch of junk food recently. That stuff leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.
And, since my ears are healing, it's probably an ill-advised decision to work out regularly, since that has this irritating tendency to break open wounds, as I have found out twice. Goriest thing my ears have ever undergone.
And now, for the bulk of the entry:
Rewatching the Boondock Saints has forced me to consider some things. What IS the solution to that particular problem? My knee-jerk reaction is to deny that they were doing the right thing. Such responses as rarely to my satisfaction, since I cannot rationalize them. Therefore: why is what they were doing wrong? Because they were killing people, and killing, no matter how deserving the person may have been, is wrong.
Okay, here's the fun bit: why? Well, let's take this from the top. I don't really like "basic rights of non-interference" because they're... pretty broad, and sometimes I honestly don't like the results. So, let's go. My basic idea is that there is no good reason for humans to live. Seriously, we die in a few years, our names are forgotten, and we may as well have never existed. So, why isn't the suicide rate higher? Among most people, because they probably don't think quite that cynically. Why is that? Well, simply put, because if we didn't, then humanity would be extinct. The people who thought like that and couldn't counter-argue are already dead before they could reproduce. But among the people who do, they must be able to counter argue the point. How? Well, the one I hear is that "Better to live and suffer than never live at all." Some people are probably too caught up in a rut to consider suicide as a way out. But the point is that it requires extended depression to lead to suicide. So why don't people get into this more often?
Because we would rather keep fighting. Because we'd rather keep hope, no matter how vain or bitter of sad or tiny of pitiful, than to submit and give up. Because we value persistence. All right, so we don't die because of hope. So hope is essential to life, because without it we would all kill ourselves and be done with it. A bit of a stretch, I know. So, what could possibly be worse that being denied hope? If the act of denying hope does not cause death, then death will follow soon after as a side effect.
So therefore, one who has no hope is either already dead or will be soon. So murder is the act of denying hope, not so much the act of pulling the trigger. And why is it wrong? Well, let's look at it from a purely selfish point of view: people judge others based on their own moral compass, right? I think that's a pretty fair thing to say, even if enacting it is rather unfair to the person being judged. So, you see in others what you see in yourself.
So once you kill someone, you see murderers everywhere. Everyone could kill you at any time. You cannot survive, because everyone is out to get you, everyone is selfish, everyone is greedy, what have you. The real point is that everyone is a potential threat, and so you're extremely paranoid. Paranoia means that you will not trust anyone. Once you can't trust anyone, your hopes for redemption are basically gone. You have no hope for anything to get better.
So in killing another person, you deny yourself hope and thereby kill yourself. So there is no murder without suicide.
This is based on an assumption of selfishness by people. So, if even from a selfish perspective, killing is wrong, how could it be right from an altruist perspective?
And this, my friends, is where life gets REALLY messy. Because, if you are killing threats to society you are a martyr. This is almost altruism at it's height, isn't it? Because you are sacrificing yourself to help others. Besides, if you're only killing murderers, then they've already lost hope, so they can't really be killed anymore than they already were.
Well, this IS awkward. Again, my off-hand reaction is to say it's wrong, but I don't honestly have any proof for it. Let's think about this. Thinking solves everything.
Well, that's an issue. My brain is fried right now, I'm not going to be able to come up with anything.
ALPHA BRAVO CHARLIE DELTA ECHO FOXTROT GOLF HOTEL INDIA JULIET KILO LIMA MIKE NOVEMBER OSCAR PAPA QUEBEC ROMEO SIERRA TANGO UNIFORM VICTOR WHISKEY YANKEE ZULU
I ate horrifically poorly today, and topped it all off with a bunch of junk food recently. That stuff leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.
And, since my ears are healing, it's probably an ill-advised decision to work out regularly, since that has this irritating tendency to break open wounds, as I have found out twice. Goriest thing my ears have ever undergone.
And now, for the bulk of the entry:
Rewatching the Boondock Saints has forced me to consider some things. What IS the solution to that particular problem? My knee-jerk reaction is to deny that they were doing the right thing. Such responses as rarely to my satisfaction, since I cannot rationalize them. Therefore: why is what they were doing wrong? Because they were killing people, and killing, no matter how deserving the person may have been, is wrong.
Okay, here's the fun bit: why? Well, let's take this from the top. I don't really like "basic rights of non-interference" because they're... pretty broad, and sometimes I honestly don't like the results. So, let's go. My basic idea is that there is no good reason for humans to live. Seriously, we die in a few years, our names are forgotten, and we may as well have never existed. So, why isn't the suicide rate higher? Among most people, because they probably don't think quite that cynically. Why is that? Well, simply put, because if we didn't, then humanity would be extinct. The people who thought like that and couldn't counter-argue are already dead before they could reproduce. But among the people who do, they must be able to counter argue the point. How? Well, the one I hear is that "Better to live and suffer than never live at all." Some people are probably too caught up in a rut to consider suicide as a way out. But the point is that it requires extended depression to lead to suicide. So why don't people get into this more often?
Because we would rather keep fighting. Because we'd rather keep hope, no matter how vain or bitter of sad or tiny of pitiful, than to submit and give up. Because we value persistence. All right, so we don't die because of hope. So hope is essential to life, because without it we would all kill ourselves and be done with it. A bit of a stretch, I know. So, what could possibly be worse that being denied hope? If the act of denying hope does not cause death, then death will follow soon after as a side effect.
So therefore, one who has no hope is either already dead or will be soon. So murder is the act of denying hope, not so much the act of pulling the trigger. And why is it wrong? Well, let's look at it from a purely selfish point of view: people judge others based on their own moral compass, right? I think that's a pretty fair thing to say, even if enacting it is rather unfair to the person being judged. So, you see in others what you see in yourself.
So once you kill someone, you see murderers everywhere. Everyone could kill you at any time. You cannot survive, because everyone is out to get you, everyone is selfish, everyone is greedy, what have you. The real point is that everyone is a potential threat, and so you're extremely paranoid. Paranoia means that you will not trust anyone. Once you can't trust anyone, your hopes for redemption are basically gone. You have no hope for anything to get better.
So in killing another person, you deny yourself hope and thereby kill yourself. So there is no murder without suicide.
This is based on an assumption of selfishness by people. So, if even from a selfish perspective, killing is wrong, how could it be right from an altruist perspective?
And this, my friends, is where life gets REALLY messy. Because, if you are killing threats to society you are a martyr. This is almost altruism at it's height, isn't it? Because you are sacrificing yourself to help others. Besides, if you're only killing murderers, then they've already lost hope, so they can't really be killed anymore than they already were.
Well, this IS awkward. Again, my off-hand reaction is to say it's wrong, but I don't honestly have any proof for it. Let's think about this. Thinking solves everything.
Well, that's an issue. My brain is fried right now, I'm not going to be able to come up with anything.
ALPHA BRAVO CHARLIE DELTA ECHO FOXTROT GOLF HOTEL INDIA JULIET KILO LIMA MIKE NOVEMBER OSCAR PAPA QUEBEC ROMEO SIERRA TANGO UNIFORM VICTOR WHISKEY YANKEE ZULU