So, I’ve been chatting with my buddies lately, and it’s turned into a bunch of debates about right and wrong. I think I have a pretty solid moral compass, I’m not bragging haha, but most people I know can’t really explain why something’s right or wrong without getting all circular or contradicting themselves.
So, how do you figure out what to do? No judgment, just curious. I’ll share my thoughts below.
Thanks!
Edit: Oh, all you lil’ philosophers have brought me a cornicopia of thoughts and ideas. I’m going to take my time responding, I’m like Treebeard, never wanna be hasty.
The Parable of the Teacup
"Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
The Parable of the Strawberry
"A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!"
Do no harm but take no shit.
Don’t be a dick.
Number one rule I have.
Beat me to it.
Don’t be a dick, don’t make anyone’s life worse out of indifference or even temporary malice, don’t make your own life harder because of the aforementioned, and the greatest accomplishment would be to make someone else’s life measurably, permanently better and have no need of credit or compensation for the act.
The problem with it is, everyone defines “dicky” behavior differently.
To crush your enemies, See them driven before you, And to hear the lamentation of their women.
Conquer the things stopping you from what you want to do. This can be poverty, people, or circumstance. See those things that you have beaten lie at your feet, and revel in the outcries of the things that you now have bested.
For the last year or so I’ve just been trying not to kill myself
Be kind to others and let go of attachments. Have lived a very happy and successful life by doing just those two things.
Try to be as unlike the cuurent US administration as possible?
Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.
Not if youre being a cunt.
Try to make life better for yourself and for everyone else. Try to have compassion for everyone. You don’t have to agree with them or support what they do, but treat them as having worth.
My ethos boils down to…
- The Golden Rule: Your rights end where other’s rights begin, and vice versa.
- Natural Rights: Any action or inaction, thought, or word, spoken or written, that does not cross the line of the Golden Rule is a natural right.
- Ethics: All ethics are founded upon, and entirely dependent upon, points 1 & 2.
- Morality Is Unethical: Morality, allowing for arbitrary precepts, is inherently unethical.
- Effort: Strive to live ethically.
- Inaction is Action: Inaction is, itself, an action. If your inaction results (even indirectly) in someone’s natural rights being infringed, your inaction is unethical.
- Consideration: Actions often have cascading, indirect consequences, and you bear full responsibility for them. Therefore, failure to consider the indirect consequences of your (in)actions is also unethical.
- Graciousness: Treat others the way they wish to be treated. Recognize the dividends that gracious behavior has on preserving the natural rights of both yourself and others.
- Defend the Social Contract: Ethical behavior is a contract between individuals. Aggressors and instigators who violate that contract are not subject to its protections. As such, adherents are obliged to defend both themselves and others from such infringements to preserve the greater social stability.
- Imperfection: Acknowledge that no body, no thing, and no system is perfect. Not you, not others, not nature, not these precepts. Mistakes are inevitable, it is the effort and intention that matters. Accept and treasure imperfection, and be faithful to the spirit rather than the letter.
Stoic and Buddhist philosophy. No religious metaphysical stuff like gods, spirits or reincarnation.
On a basic level be kind and accept impermanence.
Pee when you have the chance.
When going out into the cold during the winter, especially if you are going on a bit of multi hour journey … poop first, even if you don’t feel like it.
How do you poop when you don’t feel like it?
Or just
shitpiss on the floor 🎵I’m caught in a loop.
Hahaha, I know right!
- don’t be an asshole
- everything is allowed as long as nobody is getting hurt
- act when you see something wrong
- when you are able to help do so
- in all other cases mind your own business
everything is allowed as long as nobody is getting hurt
Context is important here. Oftentimes someone is getting hurt, you just don’t know who or when. A very fine line on this bullet.
It’s worse than that. Situations where something causes no harm to literally anyone are few and far between. Even less often you have a full and clear picture of a situation. Usually it’s a choice between who gets hurt to what extent and based on what you know you just try to minimize the damage. You will get it wrong a lot.
Life is complicated and all we can do is to try our best and hope others will too.
Pushing 4 decades, and the older I get the more I try to live by a philosophy of: be the person you wish you had when you were in their shoes.
Biggest thing is school right now: I did the college thing a bit a long time ago, struggled academically and financially, joined the military instead, separated, and now I’m back for round 2 using the GI Bill. I try to generate as many resources for my classmates as possible, run study groups, host group chats, send out reminders… The VA gives me a stipend for supplies each semester, which I’ll use in it’s entirety and give those supplies to the class. At clinicals (on-the-job education - nursing school) I’ve noticed a few students don’t eat cuz weren’t able to pack a lunch and hospital cafeteria food is WAY expensive for the average broke-ass college student, so I’ll cover the odd meal and tell em to just pay it forward once they get their RN. Shit like that. Kinda feels like I have 50 sons and daughters lol. But I remember my first attempt at college and how overwhelming everything felt… idk if having a ‘me’ would have made any difference in the outcome of round 1 - can’t make the horse drink and all - but if I can hook these kids up with an easier ride, then fuck yeah I’ll do what I can!
I try to apply that kind of approach to pretty much any context - be it school, work, or just random encounters with people.
Feels good to be helpful.
This fits very nicely in my belief system as well. For me the reason to life is to make it simpler/easier for the people who come after me. And thinking about what I needed and supplying that to others is a very nice way to achieve this. Although this could sometimes lead to doing something that is not needed (anymore), but even then showing others that helping others is a nice thing to do is worth a lot.
This is the best advice I’ve heard in a long while
Everyone here is saying “don’t be a dick”. That is not sufficient. That just makes you middling, not good. To be good, you must also stop people who ARE being dicks.
