Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jreengus]

Wow S is my new hero!

[Chandrasekhar]

I just found this interesting moral puzzle, and I though someone might like it here.

I'd say that they're all fine people.  None of them did anything evil.  I find the actions of M and S distasteful, but not immoral.

[inaluct]

WORST
B - Greedy dishonest asshole
L - Seriously, a stupid bitch. I mean, come on! She cheats on M for $20, and doesn't expect anything bad to happen?
F - Told M. A good friend to M, but his actions hurt people
M - Did nothing but break off the relationship with L after L did something reprehensible
S - Hell yes
BEST

[LegoLord]

You're being facetious again, right?

[inaluct]

Sometimes, even I don't know anymore.

[Jude]

Jude: By your logic, all of us are at the same time helping people by living an extravagant lifestyle while other people are able to enjoy life on other parts of the planet.

The difference being that doesn't make any sense 

Not if you're doing something to help those people (I hardly ever even eat fast food).

No matter what you're doing it's not enough

You could be selling your possessions to feed starving kids

[deadlycairn]

That wouldn't really accomplish anything. If you give away all you own to aid someone else, then YOU end up being poor, and someone else has to aid you.

Also, my evil meter has ratcheted up several notches after having a bad day today. I am now seriously considering a global euthanasia program of those I deem a waste of air if I ever come into money and power.

It appears my price is a bad day. Not much of a price at all, and reasonably easy to come by.

[sonerohi]

My sense of morality flings immoral people away with such force that they die (okay, not really).  But I do have a fairly high sense of morality.  I don't think I could intentionally harm anyone unless they were trying to kill or permanently disable me in some way (ex: break my lower spine).  Even when I try punching an inanimate object, I hold back.  I hold back more with people, if I can even bring myself to hit someone.

The most evil thing I could do is play a harmless practical joke.

I agree with Legolord with this. All you guys saying you'd shoot someone in the face and never think twice about it are probably thinking of just killing a random stanger and fleeing town forever. Try imagining sitting on the train on the way to work, talking to a jovial man. You suddenly kill him and leave. The next morning, you see yourself on the news and his crying wife and the three year old little girl he left behind, both crying and demanding answers as to why you would've killed him. Imagine the guilt you'd feel that, if you had a friend or some family that hid you away and kept you secret so that you wouldn't get caught. Intruding on their lives and hospitality because of a stupid action...

[Armok]

All you guys saying you'd shoot someone in the face and never think twice about it are probably thinking of just killing a random stanger and fleeing town forever. Try imagining sitting on the train on the way to work, talking to a jovial man. You suddenly kill him and leave. The next morning, you see yourself on the news and his crying wife and the three year old little girl he left behind, both crying and demanding answers as to why you would've killed him. Imagine the guilt you'd feel that, if you had a friend or some family that hid you away and kept you secret so that you wouldn't get caught. Intruding on their lives and hospitality because of a stupid action...

Bladi bladi bla. *yawn*

[inaluct]

All you guys saying you'd shoot someone in the face and never think twice about it are probably thinking of just killing a random stanger and fleeing town forever. Try imagining sitting on the train on the way to work, talking to a jovial man. You suddenly kill him and leave. The next morning, you see yourself on the news and his crying wife and the three year old little girl he left behind, both crying and demanding answers as to why you would've killed him. Imagine the guilt you'd feel that, if you had a friend or some family that hid you away and kept you secret so that you wouldn't get caught. Intruding on their lives and hospitality because of a stupid action...

Bladi bladi bla. *yawn*

He's totally right, though. You haven't killed anyone, Armok.

[Armok]

How can you be SURE of that?
Now, I haven't, because I'm scared of the legal system and I haven't had a good enough reason to.
Guilt (and pride) are useless responses that cant change anything, so I ignore them.

Also, considering this is some random thread on an internet forum were my statements cant be verified easily, you have to take into account what I said earlier abaut enjoying stereotypes,

[inaluct]

How can you be SURE of that?
Now, I haven't, because I'm scared of the legal system and I haven't had a good enough reason to.
Guilt (and pride) are useless responses that cant change anything, so I ignore them.

Also, considering this is some random thread on an internet forum were my statements cant be verified easily, you have to take into account what I said earlier abaut enjoying stereotypes,

Oh look, I was right! How unsurprising.

[umiman]

Jude: By your logic, all of us are at the same time helping people by living an extravagant lifestyle while other people are able to enjoy life on other parts of the planet.

The difference being that doesn't make any sense 

I'll explain it for you, since you're probably the kind of guy who has troubles with the "half-full, half-empty" logic:

Here's your statement:

All of us are already killing people by living an extravagant lifestyle while people are starving on other parts of the planet.

Since "all of us" are killing people on other parts of the planet, it would follow that we are, at the same time, saving other people at other OTHER parts of the planet. You can't have a glass half-full without it being half-empty.

To elaborate: For every African kid we starve to death because of overpriced grain export rules, a Chinese kid gets to eat meat with his rice as his father got employed at a new grain processing facility thanks to the high grain prices. For every poor American textile worker who was fired and is forced to sell his home, there's an Indian family of seven who won't starve to death thanks to new textile operations in their area.

People love to overlook the good effects of a policy and focus on the bad. Besides, I'm not sure how my buying a new computer kills people. If you want to calculate the opportunity cost of every action (You COULD have used that money to save 5 children), then I have this to say: if you weren't born, someone else would have gotten the 4.3 million total US dollars in personal finances, government expenditure, and additional expenses that was spent raising you; money that would have been well spent inlaying gold platings for my swimming pool instead of raising an ungrateful brat I might add.

[Rooster]

Its the kind of think my friend suggested to trolley problem:
"better question would be: Do you stop the trolley ( that means getting yourself killed) or you let the 5 die?"
The alternative of leading the trolley to you is interesting though
If anyone had to face the problem of sacrificing yourself for total strangers, I don't think anybody would do it (and by that I mean that there are always fool who would)

[Jude]

That wouldn't really accomplish anything. If you give away all you own to aid someone else, then YOU end up being poor, and someone else has to aid you.

Well, the assumption is you give away everything except what you need to live.

Since "all of us" are killing people on other parts of the planet, it would follow that we are, at the same time, saving other people at other OTHER parts of the planet. You can't have a glass half-full without it being half-empty.

To elaborate: For every African kid we starve to death because of overpriced grain export rules, a Chinese kid gets to eat meat with his rice as his father got employed at a new grain processing facility thanks to the high grain prices. For every poor American textile worker who was fired and is forced to sell his home, there's an Indian family of seven who won't starve to death thanks to new textile operations in their area.

People love to overlook the good effects of a policy and focus on the bad. Besides, I'm not sure how my buying a new computer kills people. If you want to calculate the opportunity cost of every action (You COULD have used that money to save 5 children), then I have this to say: if you weren't born, someone else would have gotten the 4.3 million total US dollars in personal finances, government expenditure, and additional expenses that was spent raising you; money that would have been well spent inlaying gold platings for my swimming pool instead of raising an ungrateful brat I might add.

You make a good point (and some not so good ones)

You could, of course, be buying the grain which goes into the global supply chain and feeds the Chinese kid, and still be using your excess income to supply some food to the starving African kid

Anyway, natural selection is gonna be a bitch in a couple of decades once global warming really sets in and the population problem is worse than ever.