Feeding the hungry

[jugglergeek]

This is likely to be the most inflammatory post I’ve made in a long time. So I’m going to start off with the request that if you’re going to post a comment, respond with something rational and logical, not just an emotional reaction that everyone is entitled to everything everyone can give them, or that I’m such a horrible monster for even

Comments

[flamingnerd]

I think you're going against the strong instinct to feel empathy. And you're not going to make headway in convincing others --no matter how logical you are. Just because back in the day (and probably now too), the practice of charity, has been adaptive for our species.

[jugglergeek]

Valid points, I can't argue with any of that. The one thing I'll add to charity being adaptive, though, is that it's positive within small groups where you've got some reasonable expectation of it being reciprocated. At a large scale, where the leeches (I forget what they're actually called) get more numerous and can get away with it for longer, it becomes maladaptive.

Unfortunately it's all irrelevant. All I'm really trying to do is get people to wake up and start thinking. Even if they don't actually change their minds, it's still a start.

[zaphod_groupie]

I have no point to make, I only want to tell you that you are unbelievably comforting to me.

[jugglergeek]

Eh? Hardly the response I expected from this. How? Why? Wizard-Tickle-Fnord?

[zaphod_groupie]

For most of my life, when I've expressed similar opinions, people tend to treat me like there is something vastly wrong with me, like I'm missing some important part of my brain or something. It's comforting to know I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Granted, I'm not entirely discounting the idea there's something wrong with the both of us, but either way, I feel better.

[jugglergeek]

Ah, that makes a bit more sense, then. I don't remember now if I've hit this point previously, but I'll be doing it in detail in the near future (relatively, given my frequency of posts): Only the "maladjusted" to society are really functional in society these days. Everyone else needs treatment, either psychological or pharmaceutical, of one form of another. So, yes, take comfort in your not fitting in. :)

You heartless tyrant!

[atheisticdryad]

You're still not a likely candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize anytime soon...;)

The vast majority of people will always think short-term. Therefore, it seems more heartless to let starving people living today die (or to kill them) than to offer them a short-term fix, even though it's at the expense of far greater numbers of people in the future who will suffer and die as a consequence. This certainly does not conform to utilitarian ethics, but it seems to be how we're wired.

I have heard the same argument you just gave offered countless times as a reason for letting hunters kill off deer, because "it's a kinder death, and will save them from having to starve to death". People generally find it easier to think in an emotionally detached manner about other species...whereas, for me it's almost the reverse.

Re: You heartless tyrant!

[jugglergeek]

I've had that deer thought before, and if I'd thought about it here, I would have integrated it into the entry. Yes, that's exactly the same argument I'm using here.

Re: You heartless tyrant!

[praecognomen]

As the son of a member of the gun-repair community, let me say that the dear arguement comes up ALL THE TIME. It is for that reason that I say, if people really want to hunt, send them to Africa and let them hunt people. It's like safari!

uh, just so long as we eat them afterwards. It's important to the cycle of nature, or some crap.

Re: You heartless tyrant!

[jugglergeek]

The problem with that is that the people who are in it for the hunting, who just want to go out and kill something, are more likely (than the ones who are subsistence hunting) to taunt, torture, abuse (physically, mentally, emotionally, etc) their human quarry. I'm not advocating anything inhumane here, I'm pushing for the least painful solution.

Safari doesn't necessarily mean killing anything, it actually just refers to the sightseeing aspect of the trip.

I'd also say, why deal with problems overseas when we've got epic problems of our own here? Turn those hunters loose in the cities, and let them take down gangs, lawyers, stockbrokers, and other pernicious and antisocial types.