You have no obligation to be useful or interesting to the world.
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Replying to @vgr
Is there rational for this claim? I'm keen to hear the thought process behind it.
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Replying to @hitsthings
Consider animals and plants. My cat doesn’t try to be useful or interesting, though he is often both without intending to. He just kinda exists for himself. Not intentionally selfish, just indifferent to value to others.
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Replying to @vgr @hitsthings
Don’t you think using the natural world as a moral or behavioral paragon is sort of a slippery slope?
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Replying to @SHL0MS @hitsthings
No, you’re thinking the naturalistic fallacy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy … That’s only a slippery slope if you believe things have an “essential” nature. I don’t think they do. That’s why my example was a domestic indoor pet cat. Very far from “natural” catness.
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Replying to @vgr
But it does sound like you're saying there is no obligation to change things from the way they already are. My cat doesn't know about starving people or malaria. Doesn't that knowledge come with obligation? The Great Uncle Ben once said... :)
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Replying to @vgr
Well power to fix something requires knowledge. I do think there is some obligation to fix things you can, weighed against other factors. I'm asking to learn though - no strong feels here.
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You certainly can do those things if you’re motivated to do them, but your right to exist isn’t conditioned upon doing those things. Selfish, apathetic, assholes aren’t to be denied the right to exist for being who they are.
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Replying to @vgr @hitsthings
Societies can of course set up legal obligations (say conscription) to be useful in certain ways and penalize those who don’t fulfill them, but that still doesn’t create obligation. You can go to jail unrepentant and reject the sense of moral obligation.
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