Whatever Affects a Child (Excerpt)

CKyrala — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:42:35 +0000

If the morality of my personal life depends on what is good for my survival and happiness—and what is bad for the same—then by extension the morality of society must depend on what is good or bad for the survival and happiness of its individual participants. If I adopt the personal moral view that the needs and desires of others outweigh and supersede mine, then I will act accordingly. I will spend every free moment of my time trying to help other people. When faced with a choice between that which may profit myself in the long run and that which will ease somebody’s suffering for the short term, how could I deny their suffering in the face of my need? However, the cumulative effects of my short-term charity add up to a very tangible burden on my long-term prosperity. I may not be going to college today, but the time and money I have been giving away to those who need it may not be there for me when I wish to better my own life. But to think of that is the principal sin in an altruistic system. No matter how great my need or desire, the ordering principle of one’s hierarchy of values in such a system must be the need of others. We must, in effect, keep giving until we can give no more. As a floating abstraction, this is often viewed as a misty-eyed platitude. In concrete terms, it means insolvency, starvation, and death.

The Morality of Profit » CKyrala

Whatever Affects a Child (Excerpt)