Lee_Smith

Karma: −2

Lee_Smith 18 Apr 2015 21:55 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Lee_Smith’s comment on: What level of compassion do you consider normal, expected, mandatory etc. ?
Interesting, someone decided to give my post a negative hit. Would that someone care to explain why? If I am wrong show me. If it is a matter of political correctness then teach me why your philosophy is better than mine. If you believe that I am an idiot please explain to me how you came to that conclusion.

I am willing to learn and I am also quite willing to admit my error, if there be one.

Lee_Smith 18 Apr 2015 21:32 UTC
0 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: What level of compassion do you consider normal, expected, mandatory etc. ?
″ the goal would be to find a way to make more people derive genuine enjoyment from helping people.” I can agree with this.

An interesting thing that I’ve noticed is when people take the concept of helping others into their identity it can result in them helping others to the point of being detrimental to themselves. They get hooked on both the pleasure of helping as well as the pleasure of fulfilling their identity as a helper.

I prefer what was said concerning Voldemort in HPMoR. (i’m paraphrasing) He could be nice because he had no moral obligation to be nice. He had no Ideal to live up to therefore he could be as nice or mean as he wanted to be. I have taken that approach for a few years and it works well for me. I find that I’m much happier with the giving I do.

Lee_Smith 18 Apr 2015 18:11 UTC
−2 points
on: What level of compassion do you consider normal, expected, mandatory etc. ?
I am of the opinion that everyone always acts in their own self-interest and that pure altruism is a myth. People (including myself) like to think that they are much more virtuous than they actually are. A simple example: would you give your own dinner to a hungry child that is not related to you if you haven’t eaten in 14 days? Probably not. Why? The personal need for food outweighs the good feeling that you would give yourself for helping a child that is not related to you. It’s an ugly thought but much more realistic than the thought of a starving person giving their food away to a stranger.

I do not see what benefit Alice can receive for complying long term with the neighbor’s desire. I did not pay rent on my apartment so that I could cater to my neighbors. I paid rent for the benefit of having a place to stay and conduct my daily affairs.

I would be willing to be cooperative for a short time if my neighbor was very sick or had been up three days because their child was in ICU. At that level, the cost of being cooperative is negligible to the feeling I can give myself for being “nice” and the goodwill I can bank with my neighbor to use later.

I think the neighbor needs to move to a location that is more conducive to the constraints her “illness” places upon her.