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People's feelings about something is an irrelevant metric. It doesn't fucking matter if no one is concerned. There are plenty of past disasters and tragedies
by flyinRyan 13y ago
People's feelings about something is an irrelevant metric. It doesn't fucking matter if no one is concerned. There are plenty of past disasters and tragedies that happened because no one was concerned.
- stephengillie 13y agoIf other people aren't worried about it, why should I be?
- flyinRyan 13y agoBecause other people are clueless and apathetic?
- AnthonyMouse 13y agoIf other people litter, why shouldn't I? If other people forgo vaccinations, why shouldn't I? If other people are just following orders, why shouldn't I?
- stephengillie 13y agoBut other people do not litter. Others do get their kids vaccinated, regardless of what the vocal antivox minority says. Why are the others just following orders -- what are the orders like? If all of your friends were jumping off of a bridge, why wouldn't you? If you don't trust them in what they do, why are they your friends?
- jtheory 13y agohttp://xkcd.com/1170/ http://xkcd.com/1170/
- stephengillie 13y agoThis xkcd inspired me
- jtheory 13y agoAs a human adult, you are probably capable of making moral judgements, and making limited predictions about how your actions will affect you & others in the future. The minority of people who litter make the experience of walking/living/sitting in that area less pleasant for everyone else, and they increase the likelihood that others will litter ("this park is already full of trash; should I really go chasing after that wrapper that fell?"). Alternatively, you could not make it worse, or you could even make it better by picking up a few things and throwing them out as you pass through. The minority who don't vaccinate encourage others to avoid vaccinations, and it doesn't take very many of them to undercut or even nullify the benefits of population vaccination (like protecting newborns who can't yet be vaccinated). Etc. etc.. Do you want to be worse, meaner, less moral, etc. than the average? Or do you want to strive for a little more than that in life? Realistically, most of us aren't going to have a huge positive or negative impact on the world; but thinking locally, if you are going to seek a mate, friendships, etc., you'll probably do better (and be happier) in life if you at least try to do better than the average. You may even get an opportunity to make a seriously good decision somewhere along the way, if you have good moral habits and keep your wits about you.
- jtheory 13y agoYour third sentence is a pretty effective rebuttal for the first two...?
- flyinRyan 13y agoNo, I'm saying no one cared then and disater or tragedy struck anyway. There is little correlation about how we feel vs. what happens to us.
- jtheory 13y agoObviously not caring doesn't accomplish anything, because people who don't care about something won't act. But if people do care about something, they are motivated to act, and may significantly alter the course of what happens -- not always, and not always as they wanted, but even a small number of motivated people can make serious waves, depending on their skill, charisma, cleverness, opportunity, etc.. Hence, what we feel matters.