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Why do you feel entitled to foist your own or other peoples problems onto strangers?
by lacampbell 10y ago
Why do you feel entitled to foist your own or other peoples problems onto strangers?
- c22 10y agoWhy do you assume kids are problems to begin with? I have met hundreds of kids during my adult life and the highest any of them has risen to for me is minor annoyance. I've had more trouble from my cars.
- lacampbell 10y agoI'm not the one that used "problem" to describe kids, btw. FWIW I quite like kids. But saying strangers kids are my responsibility because of "society" is not true at all.
- jackvalentine 10y agoKids are a part of society, and society has a stake in what kind of adult they become. In the same way drug addicts are society's problem, or unemployed people are society's problem, or sociopathic second generation rich never-worked-a-day drunk drivers are society's problem. This isn't to say that you'll be conscripted in to a psudo-parent role against your will, but they are your responsibility as a member of society in a very abstract way.
- lacampbell 10y agoIn that case, I revoke my membership to society. I have my own problems.
- jackvalentine 10y agoYou can do so by moving out in to the middle of nowhere and becoming a self-sufficient hermit. Anything less and sorry, but you're a part of society.
- lacampbell 10y agowho are you to tell an individual what responsibilities they have, and to try and make outcasts of people who don't want them? I don't have to move anywhere to absolve myself of the responsibility to strangers.
- jackvalentine 10y agoI don't think that you quite understand the point I'm making? By taking part in every day life, using civil infrastructure, having contact with other people you're a part of society with all that goes with that. It logically follows that the only way to extricate yourself from the situation is to leave society and all the benefits it brings. There are people who have done that! However I don't see how you can possibly do so and have the convenience of a doctor available when you're sick, coffee sold by the cup and roads on which for you to drive. These are physical and organisational manifestations of 'society'. By remaining in proximity and contact of other humans you're their responsibility and they are yours. It's fine to want out but that does need to come with a realisation of what benefits you draw from societal organisation and what you'll need to lose to withdraw from the uninvited, unwritten, yet tangible 'bargain' that society represents. I'm trying to picture what remaining with other people yet rejecting 'society' theoretically looks like and I can only see it as a kind of parasitic relationship. When aware of parasites humans have a tendency to try and kill or remove them. After all, you would be rejecting all the protections legal and otherwise that society offers its members.
- lacampbell 10y agoBy remaining in proximity and contact of other humans you're their responsibility and they are yours. I reject this completely. That's your reality, not mine.
- jackvalentine 10y agoPlease respond to the rest of my post, not just the weakest line.
- dang 10y agoWould you please not post uncivilly to HN? Personal abrasiveness, which this comment veers into, is something to be avoided. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14128052 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14128052 and marked it off-topic.