It's true that I generally value math more than people, but there is in fact a difference between "doing other things while people die" and "killing people myself."
You see, if I kill a person, no one can save them. I have taken away the possibility of helping them. I have personally taken away that person's life.
When I am doing something else--such as studying mathematics--I am helping mankind in my own abstract way, indirectly. I also allow a chance to remain for others to help whoever I am leaving by the wayside.
I may not be saving lies with my theorems, but I am certain that computers have saved many, many lies... and they developed from mathematicians' toys, the baubles of the mind. If I am not actively developing applications, does that mean I am part of the problem? If I am generating the theory that creates applications that creates life, does that mean I am not part of the chain--because I am not directly saving lives?
I value myself highly enough that I do what I must to remain sane; if I am not sane, I cannot help anyone. I will become another drain on society. Thus, I "waste time." I waste the time needed to gain social skills; I waste the time needed to make others happy. We have a personal duty to ourselves to protect our own happiness and wellbeing, since ultimately that is the marble upon which society is built.
This isn't nearly so black and white as you think it is, Armok. You state that your post has been over-simplified and dumbed down. Perhaps that is the case, but if so, then you have done this to the dissolution of any truth you might have established. Calling us amateurs does nothing to ingratiate yourself or make us suppose your "truths" are deeper than they seem.
Unless of course, this rapist just was using his penis to defuse a vagina bomb. Then everything fair n' square.
Because all the hands and sterile surgical instruments have been destroyed in a vast fit of rage, or somesuch?
Author
Topic: I think (american) society punishes sex offenders too harshly. (Read 20372 times)