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Moralizing is a race to the bottom. If you think that the existence of life on Earth is the paramount moral good and are e.g. willing to fly on a plane, you are
by drewblaisdell 6y ago
Moralizing is a race to the bottom. If you think that the existence of life on Earth is the paramount moral good and are e.g. willing to fly on a plane, you are a hypocrite.
- gspr 6y agoI'll bite on your last sentence. Why?
- celticninja 6y agoI presume he means you are adding to climate change. What if you are flying an endangered animal some where it can reproduce? Is that ok?
- gspr 6y ago> I presume he means you are adding to climate change. Everything is a matter of degree. Calling people hypocrites for ever flying is riduculous.
- IanSanders 6y agoNot for just flying, for "thinking that the existence of life on Earth is the paramount moral good" and flying.
- IanSanders 6y agoProbably (unnecessary?) ecological impact and using fossil fuels
- gspr 6y agoWhat is "necessary"? I, too, regard global warming as the biggest threat to our species. I still don't think that makes someone a hypocrite for flying.
- jimmaswell 6y agoI think maintaining a quality of life for humanity is necessary. Sacrificing everything in the name of the environment is paperclip maximizing - what we really want is to find the optimal level of attention to the environment that gives us the best value over time.
- IanSanders 6y agoI personally don't have a strong opinion here but do feel like most people lose track of the global picture yet get fixated on individual problems. I think this happens because we don't have a measure of the impact of our activity, we just vaguely feel like some actions are "good" and some "bad". Corny example, recycling is considered "good", yet still has a net negative impact, but for most people it's enough to feel good and stop worrying. Very few things are strictly necessary, but many are definitely unnecessary: perverted maximisation of profits, planned obsolescence, avoidable food waste etc. Tech example: avoidable software bloat causing global increase in energy consumption.
- mola 6y agoI don't agree. I do think certain schools of moralistic thought fall down this path. But it's not mendatory. If we relax our need for dichotomy, while encouraging contemplation this is less of a problem.