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How to keep doing the right thing?
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#12[deleted]
Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#13If you had to choose one person - a real person, or an imaginary one - to watch you through your whole life, and know everything you do and why you do it; not judging or disciplining you, but just being aware of your inner self ... who would that person be? Who would you choose, and why?
Would you choose someone you respect? Someone you would not wish to hurt or shame? Would it be someone who brings out the best in yourself? Would you want to earn their respect for yourself?
Would you choose someone who rates people as winners and losers, bosses and suckers? Someone who doesn't care how they make others feel, so long as they're the ones on top? Would you want to earn their approval as another winner on their level?
The choice you make will tell you where your self-respect lies. Look after your self-respect. Other things can disappear from your life, either temporarily or permanently: health, wealth, love, security, friends, luck, dignity, purpose, joy. They're not always in your control. But self-respect is in your own keeping. And it can be enough, by itself, to make you feel that life is still worth living, and that you're glad to be who you are.
Seek Joy. Seek the company of people you admire. You can seek their company through the internet, books and film as much as by actually meeting.
Who are your heroes? Try to keep them, and what's heroic about them, in mind. Recognise they are human too, though.
Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#14I think there are two fundamental questions: Is there such thing as right and wrong? And if so, how does one know what is right and what is wrong? A commenter below says right and wrong are only human constructs, but that raises the question of "which humans?" Arthur Leff calls this the "grand sez who?" Is right and wrong a preference, as I might prefer meat to cheese? If so, then who's to say my preferences are more…
> Is there such thing as right and wrong?
Yes.
> And if so, how does one know what is right and what is wrong?
It all boils down to life and death. Right is anything that promotes life, wrong is anything that brings death.
This usually translates to right being anything that brings pleasure, while wrong anything that causes pain. After all that's how the brain is wired.
On the other hand we are social creatures and sometimes there is conflict, something that is right for the individual maybe is wrong for the community. It is widely accepted that right of the many is greater than the right of the one, and hence we have the laws.
So yes, there is right and wrong, and they are very clearly defined.
The problem that the OP has, is that most individuals in his country do what is right for themselves but wrong for the many and hence OP feels like a sucker because she/he does what is wrong for herself/himself but right for the many.
But if we go back to the roots of right and wrong, if most of the people in the community choose to do the wrong thing, then doing the right thing is not doing the right thing anymore.
Confused? Let me give you an example. Let's say we have 10 persons locked in a room. Each day we give a stick of bread to a random person. The community has decided that every day they will share the bread among all of them, as it is the best for the community(nobody will die of starvation). In this case, when you get the bread it is very clear that the right thing to do is to share it.
Now what happens if the majority of the individuals in the room, don't do the right thing, and don't share the bread when they get it, but keep it for themselves?
If a person gets the bread is it right to keep it to herself/himself or to share it?
Surprisingly the right thing to do, both for the individual and for the community, is to keep it, as the community will not really benefit if that person starves to death.
Of course, something even better would be for that person to try to convince everybody to start sharing the bread again.
Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#15I'm a Christian (Latter-Day Saint) and also adhere to Buddhist precepts. I meditate two hours a day. I don't eat animals and regularly pick up litter in my neighborhood. I do these things because I decided to be a good person. That's the kind of man I want to be and my actions make it reality. No matter what happens in the world around me, with God's help I'll always be a good person. It's like the Zen saying about t…
> I'm a Christian (Latter-Day Saint) and also adhere to Buddhist precepts. I meditate two hours a day. I don't eat animals and regularly pick up litter in my neighborhood.
Very interesting, especially in a world where many people view religious practices as entirely mutually exclusive. As a Buddhist myself, good on you for doing this. Things need not be as black and white as some believe.
Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#16The Dalai Lama said the purpose of life is to be happy. It's not straightforward to figure out what that is, but it's worth trying.
Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#17I think there are two fundamental questions: Is there such thing as right and wrong? And if so, how does one know what is right and what is wrong? A commenter below says right and wrong are only human constructs, but that raises the question of "which humans?" Arthur Leff calls this the "grand sez who?" Is right and wrong a preference, as I might prefer meat to cheese? If so, then who's to say my preferences are more…
> Is there such thing as right and wrong? Yes. > And if so, how does one know what is right and what is wrong? It all boils down to life and death. Right is anything that promotes life, wrong is anything that brings death. This usually translates to right being anything that brings pleasure, while wrong anything that causes pain. After all that's how the brain is wired. On the other hand we are social creatures and s…
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Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#18Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
Re: How to keep doing the right thing?
#19For one thing, I am not entirely convinced right and wrong exist in any objective sense. The way I see it, to be able to define some things as good and some things bad, you have to accept that the good things are "better" than the bad things. I am not certain this is true. Is acting in anger better than acting in temperance? Is murder better than mercy? It all seems very situational to me, and by nature of being a theory, ethical schools of thought are general guidelines for a large percentage of situations. None of which can anticipate every situation, and any I want to adhere to must be perfect for each situation.
Instead, I focus on what I desire and not what is "right." I do what I want, as it were. But with that comes an obligation to know what I want. Self-reflection is key: what do I want most, what do I want now, are these things the same in this situation as opposed to my last situation, etc... It might seem a little self-centered, but I am the one affecting the world and I am the one person that can know my desires better than any other person. Plus, I don't think my have been anything incredibly un-altruistic yet. At the very least, it has done a lot to reduce the amount of regret I feel over my decisions (which is a start at least).