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Dec. 11th, 2019
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Dec. 11th, 2019 11:53 pmI’ve been thinking about thathopeyetlives. I think we’re equally strident about the same things, just in opposite directions.
I’m not going to get into too much detail about Hope, because I think he can do that more accurately himself. But my impression is that he thinks the purpose of humanity is to serve ideals. There’s a repeated pattern where someone tells him his ideals are hurting people, and he’s disgusted that they would think that’s a valid reason to abandon ideals.
I think the purpose of ideals is to serve humanity. On our own, it’s easy for us to help ourselves and our friends, but harder for us to help people we don’t know. There are many ways to help people, but there are recurring patterns to be aware of, and we can codify these patterns as ideals, like the Golden Rule or the cardinal virtues.
There’s a Terry Pratchett quote about how lives are more valuable than causes, because you can find a new cause, but you only get one life. I don’t know if he actually meant anyone to agree with the character who says it, but I do believe that life should buy life. Take suicide bombing—are your people really going to live longer or better because you’re killing yourself? Or are you just benefiting some old man in a cave who likes having power over you?
It’s not as simple as “never die for anything.” If other people are suffering or dying, there’s value in standing up. But I think it’s about the people themselves, not about something as vague as an ideal.
(Note that there’s a degree of asymmetry here. I support Hope’s desire to follow his own principles, so long as that doesn’t trample on other people. Hope opposes any values other than his own.)
I’m not going to get into too much detail about Hope, because I think he can do that more accurately himself. But my impression is that he thinks the purpose of humanity is to serve ideals. There’s a repeated pattern where someone tells him his ideals are hurting people, and he’s disgusted that they would think that’s a valid reason to abandon ideals.
I think the purpose of ideals is to serve humanity. On our own, it’s easy for us to help ourselves and our friends, but harder for us to help people we don’t know. There are many ways to help people, but there are recurring patterns to be aware of, and we can codify these patterns as ideals, like the Golden Rule or the cardinal virtues.
There’s a Terry Pratchett quote about how lives are more valuable than causes, because you can find a new cause, but you only get one life. I don’t know if he actually meant anyone to agree with the character who says it, but I do believe that life should buy life. Take suicide bombing—are your people really going to live longer or better because you’re killing yourself? Or are you just benefiting some old man in a cave who likes having power over you?
It’s not as simple as “never die for anything.” If other people are suffering or dying, there’s value in standing up. But I think it’s about the people themselves, not about something as vague as an ideal.
(Note that there’s a degree of asymmetry here. I support Hope’s desire to follow his own principles, so long as that doesn’t trample on other people. Hope opposes any values other than his own.)