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Ben_LandauTaylor comments on Open thread, August 26 - September 1, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: philh 26 August 2013 09:00PM

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Comment author: diegocaleiro 28 August 2013 11:20:41AM *  8 points [-]

What are the reasons to go to family meetings, and meet the subset of family members who happen to be (1) Stupid (2) Religious (3) Non-rationalists (4) Absolutely clueless about reality (5) Pushy about inserting their ideas/ideals/weltenshaaung/motifs into you?

Of the top of my mind: [1] Avoid losing inheritance money [2] Avoid losing reputation with related family members who are not so silly [3] Avoid losing reputation with other people who may give you inheritance money [4] It is an investment in the far future, if you break a leg, or something, family members are more likely to take you to a hospital

These 4 reasons do not seem sufficient to me. Personally I don't think (a) You owe them, for their past good deeds towards you (b) Sharing genes is an important property or (c) One should love one's relatives.... have any truth in them. So do you have any extra arguments besides the 4 above that may be more convincing? Or should I abdicate the meetings alltogether?

Comment author: Ben_LandauTaylor 30 August 2013 10:43:41PM 5 points [-]

Advice that you probably don't need to hear, but might be useful to someone in a similar situation:

If you do cut family ties, try to do so without hurting anyone or burning any bridges. The outside view says you're likely to reconcile in 5-10 years, and that's a lot easier if you drifted apart than if you had a big cathartic fight.

Comment author: diegocaleiro 02 September 2013 10:17:51PM 2 points [-]

I'll just vanish slowly, no fight intended.

I don't think fighting is worth it most of the times it occurs, do people disagree?

Comment author: Ben_LandauTaylor 03 September 2013 02:23:33PM 1 point [-]

Strong agreement.

In one's personal life, fighting is occasionally better than no action at all, but (effectively) never the best action.