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In modern life it seems like the choice is between nearly constant, unyielding outrage at abuses of power and corruption among government agencies, law enforcem

by mlthoughts2018 8y ago

In modern life it seems like the choice is between nearly constant, unyielding outrage at abuses of power and corruption among government agencies, law enforcement, corporations, and so on... vs willful ignorance to empower a distracted existence focused more narrowly on just trying to manage or enjoy one’s own life. I don’t mean this to sound dismissive at all. It is seriously an incredibly difficult moral and philosophical question as I see it. Burning yourself out with constant (justified) rage obviously seems foolish: you’re not likely to accomplish anything except frittering away your life and youth and ending up bitter with nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, it genuinely does not seem possible to make any incremental improvement to the world in terms of corruption and abuse of power without being pedantically hypervigilant and extreme to an alienating degree that rejects many comforts of basic life and ignores things like career or family development in favor of nearly constant activism. The problems are so sprawling and complex that average, even above average, people have no hope at all of sustaining justified outrage and channeling it into productive action. So naturally it’s much easier for most people to slide into narrowly focusing on their own life / family / career / hobbies / community, and rationalizing away any feeling that they might have had an intrinsic moral duty to engage sustained, unyielding outrage even at their own expense until massive scale changes are effected or they literally die trying to bring about such changes. I’m neither excusing anyone nor judging anyone in this observation. Just pointing out what feels like a deep, philosphically intractable trade-off at the heart of it.

scottmcf 8y ago
I've wrestled with this. The only solution I've found to balance out these two conflicting ideas (justifiable outrage vs living my life) is to run for office myself.
ataturk 8y ago
I think the next stage is coming where we either take back control away from the corrupt or we fall. We're teetering right now. I have seen the ugly underpinnings of NY State and how things really operate and I ran 1300 miles away from it. But that corruption has risen all over. We let dumb, alcoholic lawmakers take all our freedom using well-intentioned slogans because we wanted drunks off the roads and safer kids, but what we got instead was tyranny and now a flood of people whose sole purpose is to replace the uppity, indignant folks with far more pliant, peasant serfs. Also, we asked them to fix the mental health system and instead we got "Red Flag" laws that are just open invitations to inform on neighbors you don't like and SWAT them to death. The rest of the story writes itself if you know anything about the Soviet Union and what happened to people there. It's your choice in the end, but the first real resistance uprising that starts up, I'm there. I won't go without at least attempting to fight. ETA: I'm done being nice, I'm done with PC.
Spooky23 8y ago
It’s a cycle — we were grappling with the same issues in 1919 and 1819, as technology and governance changed the structure of society. The reflex action to this form of gilded age will be significant and hopefully peaceful.
mindslight 8y ago
I think there's a middle ground where you don't have to stop paying attention, yet you also don't have to be outraged by every new report, even despite it being outrageous. But the pitfall you need to keep aware of is the cognitive dissonance that causes people to flip and start supporting the system. When "pulling back", it is important to not end up being taken in by simplistic messages that actually transmute you into an enabler. For example each political party preaches their own flavor of legitimate criticism to gather support, but then directs that energy at the easy target of the "other" team instead of ever addressing deep seated corruption.
carapace 8y ago
FWIW you can't think clearly under the influence of rage or other passions.
harmful_stereo 8y ago
Reverse shadenfreude,maybe? The notion that you have been denied the opportunity to "live morally or joyfully" by the condition of misery in the world; the inability to enjoy your own selfishness or competitiveness enough to compensate. But yeah, what you said. "This, times a million," as my dear heart would say to me.

scottmcf 8y ago

I've wrestled with this. The only solution I've found to balance out these two conflicting ideas (justifiable outrage vs living my life) is to run for office myself.

ataturk 8y ago

I think the next stage is coming where we either take back control away from the corrupt or we fall. We're teetering right now. I have seen the ugly underpinnings of NY State and how things really operate and I ran 1300 miles away from it. But that corruption has risen all over. We let dumb, alcoholic lawmakers take all our freedom using well-intentioned slogans because we wanted drunks off the roads and safer kids, but what we got instead was tyranny and now a flood of people whose sole purpose is to replace the uppity, indignant folks with far more pliant, peasant serfs. Also, we asked them to fix the mental health system and instead we got "Red Flag" laws that are just open invitations to inform on neighbors you don't like and SWAT them to death. The rest of the story writes itself if you know anything about the Soviet Union and what happened to people there. It's your choice in the end, but the first real resistance uprising that starts up, I'm there. I won't go without at least attempting to fight. ETA: I'm done being nice, I'm done with PC.

Spooky23 8y ago

It’s a cycle — we were grappling with the same issues in 1919 and 1819, as technology and governance changed the structure of society. The reflex action to this form of gilded age will be significant and hopefully peaceful.

mindslight 8y ago

I think there's a middle ground where you don't have to stop paying attention, yet you also don't have to be outraged by every new report, even despite it being outrageous. But the pitfall you need to keep aware of is the cognitive dissonance that causes people to flip and start supporting the system. When "pulling back", it is important to not end up being taken in by simplistic messages that actually transmute you into an enabler. For example each political party preaches their own flavor of legitimate criticism to gather support, but then directs that energy at the easy target of the "other" team instead of ever addressing deep seated corruption.

carapace 8y ago

FWIW you can't think clearly under the influence of rage or other passions.

harmful_stereo 8y ago

Reverse shadenfreude,maybe? The notion that you have been denied the opportunity to "live morally or joyfully" by the condition of misery in the world; the inability to enjoy your own selfishness or competitiveness enough to compensate. But yeah, what you said. "This, times a million," as my dear heart would say to me.