Nice piece. One thought: "saving" a life doesn't capture the full reality, IMO. Everyone dies. We can extend and/or (hopefully) improve lives. Death wins in the end, though, and there can be things worse than death in the meantime.
I feel like this substack is writing to convince the anti-math leftists who seemed ascendant 5 years ago. Are they still the people one should be focusing on?
Interesting. Not sure I agree with all of it, especially the modified transplant problem, but I appreciate the thought that went into this piece nonetheless. I just hope people don't start calling utilitarianism as "egalitarianism" because of you. My people have been through enough! 🤣😭
>If we want to be good egalitarians, we need to rigorously quantify what we do, and try our best to ignore the specific personalities and abilities of the people saved by charitable giving.
But the whole point is good egalitarianism is bad utilitarianism. You should rather save baby Einstein than baby Hitler. Better long-term consequences.
Everyone matters and we’re not fully seeing this yet. Everyone matters. Everyone you encounter and everyone you might be able to imagine is existing in some kind of body—they matter. We matter. I matter. You matter. Sink yourself deeply into what that means. I beg. Please. There’s no language I’ve found yet to get through to people who can’t see this. People block the realization because it is so painful. My family line helped cause this. I know it. I think they are going to help fix it. I hope so. But no one tells me anything. I don’t know. Yet I know we are broken as a species. Culture is the same as a cult. There is a prevailing cult; money. Children are hurt for this aim. People are hurt to acquire it. It seems there’s not enough to go around. That is false. There is enough to meet everyone’s needs and wants. But not if we hate each other. Not if we take people’s souls from them. Not if we trick people. The world went through hard things so we could build what we need to all thrive. The world has shown us the depths of despair so we can all see how precious we are. We are now all scrambled up inside and outside. Yet there’s a buzz. There’s movement for real change. Global change. We have been in a world that withholds what people need to thrive. It’s tested us. It’s done this for thousands of years. We, in turn, have been cruel to the planet we live upon. We’ve done our best to go with the flow. This shit got really complex. We’ve shut down our compassion and our fierce willingness to say NO and to defend ourselves and one another as needed. We are filled with regret and hurt and pain and fear. We have been cruel to ourselves and to each other. Some have tried to voice this, time and time again, and have been met with extreme types of violence of all flavors. It’s scary to watch this unfold. It’s scary to think we are victims. It’s scary to know we are the perpetrators too. We have been deceived about each other’s true nature and true power. We have been handed down false information as to who and what we are. We are each gods. We are each a beautiful facet of the whole universe and whatever is beyond and within. We are infinity. Not one person is higher than another. Ever. Never ever has there been a legitimate hierarchy. I don’t care what you’ve done in the past, this shit is going to stop and we are going to make this world a place where we are all well. We can all enjoy living and life on this earth. We can play the villain without hurting anyone. We can play all fucking day. We hold innocence and corruption in the palms of our hands and we each get to decide the flavor of our lives. No one decides for another person. No one uses another person’s innocence against them. Kids get to be kids and no kid is left without abundance of material goods and conduits of love and creativity. No one. Each body is ours to do what we see fit. We stand up for whoever needs protection. Children will laugh truly and fully and go to bed tired and happy and safe and loved. All emotions are accessible, acceptable and fully expressed and shared. We need to use our creativity to stop this madness and this sadness. It’s been enough suffering now. Change is here. Beautiful things are going to happen. They are happening. I don’t know how, but it’s happening now. We will all be OK. No longer will we have to watch or cheer for another person’s demise. There is nothing we can do to stop the goodness coming our way. We are all here to witness and enjoy the fruits of our pain and our blessings. Demand your rights and stand up for everyone else’s. We’ve got this.
Nice piece. One thought: "saving" a life doesn't capture the full reality, IMO. Everyone dies. We can extend and/or (hopefully) improve lives. Death wins in the end, though, and there can be things worse than death in the meantime.
I feel like this substack is writing to convince the anti-math leftists who seemed ascendant 5 years ago. Are they still the people one should be focusing on?
This is more something I've been meaning to say for a while but hadn't actually got down. I agree it's not nearly the most high priority thing.
Interesting. Not sure I agree with all of it, especially the modified transplant problem, but I appreciate the thought that went into this piece nonetheless. I just hope people don't start calling utilitarianism as "egalitarianism" because of you. My people have been through enough! 🤣😭
Have you read "Byzantine Empathy" by Ken Liu? Thought provoking short story that touches on some of these themes.
>If we want to be good egalitarians, we need to rigorously quantify what we do, and try our best to ignore the specific personalities and abilities of the people saved by charitable giving.
But the whole point is good egalitarianism is bad utilitarianism. You should rather save baby Einstein than baby Hitler. Better long-term consequences.
Everyone matters and we’re not fully seeing this yet. Everyone matters. Everyone you encounter and everyone you might be able to imagine is existing in some kind of body—they matter. We matter. I matter. You matter. Sink yourself deeply into what that means. I beg. Please. There’s no language I’ve found yet to get through to people who can’t see this. People block the realization because it is so painful. My family line helped cause this. I know it. I think they are going to help fix it. I hope so. But no one tells me anything. I don’t know. Yet I know we are broken as a species. Culture is the same as a cult. There is a prevailing cult; money. Children are hurt for this aim. People are hurt to acquire it. It seems there’s not enough to go around. That is false. There is enough to meet everyone’s needs and wants. But not if we hate each other. Not if we take people’s souls from them. Not if we trick people. The world went through hard things so we could build what we need to all thrive. The world has shown us the depths of despair so we can all see how precious we are. We are now all scrambled up inside and outside. Yet there’s a buzz. There’s movement for real change. Global change. We have been in a world that withholds what people need to thrive. It’s tested us. It’s done this for thousands of years. We, in turn, have been cruel to the planet we live upon. We’ve done our best to go with the flow. This shit got really complex. We’ve shut down our compassion and our fierce willingness to say NO and to defend ourselves and one another as needed. We are filled with regret and hurt and pain and fear. We have been cruel to ourselves and to each other. Some have tried to voice this, time and time again, and have been met with extreme types of violence of all flavors. It’s scary to watch this unfold. It’s scary to think we are victims. It’s scary to know we are the perpetrators too. We have been deceived about each other’s true nature and true power. We have been handed down false information as to who and what we are. We are each gods. We are each a beautiful facet of the whole universe and whatever is beyond and within. We are infinity. Not one person is higher than another. Ever. Never ever has there been a legitimate hierarchy. I don’t care what you’ve done in the past, this shit is going to stop and we are going to make this world a place where we are all well. We can all enjoy living and life on this earth. We can play the villain without hurting anyone. We can play all fucking day. We hold innocence and corruption in the palms of our hands and we each get to decide the flavor of our lives. No one decides for another person. No one uses another person’s innocence against them. Kids get to be kids and no kid is left without abundance of material goods and conduits of love and creativity. No one. Each body is ours to do what we see fit. We stand up for whoever needs protection. Children will laugh truly and fully and go to bed tired and happy and safe and loved. All emotions are accessible, acceptable and fully expressed and shared. We need to use our creativity to stop this madness and this sadness. It’s been enough suffering now. Change is here. Beautiful things are going to happen. They are happening. I don’t know how, but it’s happening now. We will all be OK. No longer will we have to watch or cheer for another person’s demise. There is nothing we can do to stop the goodness coming our way. We are all here to witness and enjoy the fruits of our pain and our blessings. Demand your rights and stand up for everyone else’s. We’ve got this.