Philosophical Questions: Help

[ysabetwordsmith]

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Is it more important to help yourself, help your family, help your society, or help the world?

The world -- because without a world to stand on, you will not have yourself, your family, or your society. At least not within your current life, which will be over.

Also, for idiots arguing that the environment conflicts with the economy -- no. The economy is a subset of the environment. No environment, no economy.

Comments

Re: Yes ...

[see_also_friend]

>>They understand that if you try to take out more money than you put in the bank, it gets overdrawn; so they can easily apply that concept to relationships.<<

That is a useful metaphor. That said, I can think of 2 problems with it:

1) It assumes there is a common 'currency,' since banks will usually only take currency. With relationships a love-language mishap can have the equivalent of 'depositing' cacao beans or snails to someone who is expecting dollars and cents.

2) The implied capitalism metaphor makes a relationship sound almost like a rigid exchange, and not all relationships are like that. For example, investing in a child or mentee is not a capitalist investment where you have an expected payoff, but more of a pay-it-forward investment, where you might not benefit, but someone (or exponential someone's) will.

>>I like emotional watering too, but I suspect that's less effective nowadays when fewer people have gardens or even houseplants.<<

It makes sense to me, even though I'm not a big gardener, especially since it involves regular maintenance.

And most people do know that if you forget to water your plants, then eventually they will turn all brown and ugly and brittle, at which point it is kind of pointless to complain at the plant for being dead...