>> it obviously brightened the lives of thousands of people, and not just with shallow entertainment but with the opportunity to lift their gazes from the mud a

>> it obviously brightened the lives of thousands of people, and not just with shallow entertainment but with the opportunity to lift their gazes from the mud and look at the sky, to reflect for a moment on their place in the world. I have no idea how to calculate the benefit from that, but it wouldn't surprise me if it greatly outweighed the cost. But we don't know if it had a positive effect. Maybe it had a negative effect? Maybe people will donate and volunteer less to other causes ? Maybe we are replacing valuable charity with fun charity ? Those are all valid options. And because this affected so many people , the cumulative effect would be a big negative ? It's hard to fully predict the result of our actions. Life is complex as you say.But that's beside the point. The point is: thousands of people having a good time, while believing they did something great, while doing very little in reality.