= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Emily comments on Suffering - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (92)
Are you saying that "help the helpless" is a bad idea?
If you discovered their helplessness yourself, most likely a good idea; if it was advertised to you, almost certainly a bad idea.
That seems like it could make sense. If you discover their helplessness, does that come under "it benefits me" or "the social contract requires me" to help them?
What about the helpless who would normally be discovered by no one in a position to help them, and don't have their helplessness advertised? Is it a good idea under this formula to go and actively seek them out, or not?
If I discover their helplessness and expect a high enough degree of gratitude, I'll help for selfish reasons, otherwise move on. For example, I love helping old women on the metro with their heavy bags because they're always so surprised that someone decided to help them (Moscow's not a polite city), but I never give money to beggars. For an even more clear-cut example, I will yield my seat to an elderly person unless specifically demanded to.
Actively seeking out people to help might be warranted if the resulting warm fuzzies are high enough.
This kinda bothers me, and I don't know whether it's just an emotional, illogical reaction or whether there are some good reasons to be bothered by it. In practice, I would imagine it's not a bad description of how most people behave most of the time. But if everyone used these criteria all the time, something is telling me the world would not be a better place. I could well be wrong.
ps. I assumed that was supposed to read "I will not yield my seat...", but I guess it's possible that it wasn't supposed to. ?
Nah, it was supposed to read "I will". Someone who demands that I yield my seat isn't likely to show gratitude when I comply.
Can't speak about the whole world, but anyone who's very prone to manipulating and being manipulated (like I was before) will benefit from adopting this strategy, and everyone around them will benefit too.
I see. That's an interesting approach. (Voted up because you're making me think. Still not at all sure I find it a good one.)