Hot on the heels of my Weakness post, i have come across this video which is presenting a thesis about ordinary people being evil.
i could watch it till the end and make an opinion then, but I’m choosing to deal with parts of it as it unfolds and see where it goes.
Contributing to charity as an ordinary everyday person is Obligatory and not Supererogatory – Here’s where i have a problem: i don’t believe in charity. i don’t believe in charity because it removes the human connection and you have an imbalanced relationship.
The way i see charity and charity organizations is funds being funneled into them, then they are sitting on top, being so kind to the people below. it’s not a level relationship most of the time and how could it be? The people are trying to solve the problems which seem to be water or food or whatever problems seem important at that time, but wouldn’t it be different if funds weren’t funneled into this organization where people have to work for it? What if funds were spread among people that can make a connection with specific people, and each person just helps one person? Wouldn’t that be enough if the effort was focused? Wouldn’t it be a superior approach to actually forge a relationship with the persons in need? How can you know globally as an organization what people need? You definitely don’t Each person has different needs, and people don’t just need to survive, maybe they also want to live.
i see charity as this enormous hamster wheel that’s training people to be obeying and under a wheel and just getting them to survive. Is life worth living if we’re only just surviving? Is life worth living if all we have is just basic necessities and work?
If it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of moral significance, then we must, morally do it.
Hunger, disease and other sources of suffering, disability and death, are very bad.
The luxuries on which we spend money are not of moral significance
By donating money to relief agencies, we could prevent hunger, disease and other sources of suffering, disability and death.
Therefore we must, morally donate the money that we spend on luxuries to relief agencies.
The above seems very short-sighted. Maybe i need coffee in order to write. Maybe i need to drive around in a specific car so i can clear my head and be able to write. Maybe i don’t need to just survive in order to help other people to just survive. What would my motivation be then to do anything great if there’s nothing in this life worth living for because i have to give up on all the perceived luxuries? Maybe there should be a definition of what luxury means and a ceiling, that moves up as the whole world moves up. Maybe that would give a new meaning to “we rise together”.