• interim
    7
    ... for doing the wrong thing... What if you are playing it right now?...

    I think this is an interesting concept in the minds of... well most (although not all) of us. The majority of people would like to be rewarded for doing the "right thing". Some may say, this is vastly subjective... but I don't think so.

    Doing the right thing is for example studying hard, in order to become competent, and get a better job and be respected. I think most will agree, otherwise... why we go to school and keep scores all. Why we want someone competent to help us with a job. But is that really working in practice? Hm... I'm not convinced. I come from a family that always valued education and hard work, but they were always very poor. I can't remember a day in my life, I didn't have to think about the price... of really everything I buy, even the smallest expense. My family also don't have many friends or received much respect. On the other hand, I know "businessmen" selling crap vanity products to people below average IQ, that make a ton of money. And they make a lot of people really happy it seems, making them feel pretty, even just showing off prosperity. On the contrary, my mother is a teacher, her job is basically making people feel stupid. Sometimes she gets a lot of hate from those thinking they deserve a higher grade. For the rest, it was mostly a hard work they want to forget and move on. Getting the deserved appreciation often requires some work, thinking from the other side, which is of course highly optional.

    It's similar with the romantic relationships. There are those that are popular and do whatever they want to their partners, being disrespectful, cheating... but somehow they can always find the next one using their charm and good sounding lies. On the contrary, many people with good character and integrity stay alone, since they "do not sell well", people do not find them attractive, "cool" enough. If I give again my mother for example, my father cheated on her, and created his new family. My mother and I were left alone on our own, and she didn't have success with another man.

    And what about politics... Well we all know the dirty games there. If there is one character with some integrity and good intentions, he is out of the game. If I have to give a popular example, this will be Ron Paul. I'm not an American, but I often listen his talks, and he is like a pearl in the dirt. But he has no chance against the pigs. Who are they, we all know, and strange or not - all people go to vote for either of them.

    The virus, is just one more example, where we are allowed to listen only to particular group of "experts" around the government and WHO, and denied information from all other doctors and professors. So imagine what such doctors (going against the grain, and doing their own research) get - hate, ban, possibly loss of job. While the compliant ones get wealthier and more popular by just repeating blindly the narrative. I feel that in many professions, there are so called "elitists", that dictate everything, and they reword only those that blindly agree with them. They hate smart people that can endanger their authority.

    What about Google, which is openly manipulating the search results and banning almost anything that is not a cat video on youtube and the search engine? Who is Google to tell me what sites I should read, and what videos I should watch? And people made them one of the most powerful organizations on Earth, in the same way they go and elect the most dirty politician they can find.

    So what is the conclusion... Proper judgement is actually a very difficult thing. It's easier to convince most people to use their bad judgement, then their good one. This means that the game is won by the bigger bastard. Of course, not saying anything new here. Machiavelli wrote book on politics many years ago, but I feel his "solution" was just as worse, and created even bigger danger - for "winners" that think they are in reality "good". They just played the game dirty, since this is how you win, but actually they are very, very good people deep inside. You must listen to some of the Google bosses. IMO, they are all of that archetype. They are using methods from Nazi Germany, but they think they are saving the humanity and they are the good guys. I bet the Nazi though the same... People need to believe they do the "right thing", and they are supposed to succeed if the do the "right thing". Scientifically and logically however, they can't be further from the truth. But this is a though that can frighten even the most brave of us... What if our world, teaches us to be bastards and psychopaths... Of course - if you are not ready to die poor, alone and unknown.
  • Outlander
    1.8k
    for doing the wrong thing... What if you are playing it right now?.interim

    Then you'd probably have been gobbled up as a fetus for nourishment or raised to serve some Neanderthal army in a society of cavemen. Yet here we are. On computers and smartphones and traveling to outer space. Case in point.

    So you've been through much, as have many. You were given the truest experience in life that can be had. What more do you want really? Money? For what? Basics, understandable. But then what?
  • unenlightened
    8.7k
    If virtue was rewarded and vice punished it would be merest common sense to be virtuous.

    And that would make virtue and selfishness the same. Of course as it is, you have to take up your cross to follow the path of virtue. This is not a new insight requiring a long screed.
  • TheMadFool
    13.8k
    Imagine a game where you are rewarded... for doing the wrong thing... What if you are playing it right now?...interim

    Life is that game, if you haven't already noticed. The dirtier you are, the greater the reward.
  • Outlander
    1.8k


    Is it now? There's prizes or "spoils" which are positive and rewards which can be either.

    A man who stepped on people his whole life to make a few bucks might find himself being shot by someone whose life he ruined. Or at the very least has to watch his back and live the same fear and uncertainty he created.

    There's a remedy for that situation and it is called civil society. You cheat in school you might flunk. You embezzle money you might end up in prison. You steal you might be stolen from. Not perfect no, but better than nothing and a start at least.

    Of course, a wise man once told me "damn if you do, damn if you don't". People who do cave to indifference, intolerance, and selfishness and skirt morality or even the law may achieve more than the honest man with no legal or social backlash. It is a shame. Again, better than before. Is it not?
  • TheMadFool
    13.8k
    Is it now? There's prizes or "spoils" which are positive and rewards which can be either.

    A man who stepped on people his whole life to make a few bucks might find himself being shot by someone whose life he ruined. Or at the very least has to watch his back and live the same fear and uncertainty he created.

    There's a remedy for that situation and it is called civil society. You cheat in school you might flunk. You embezzle money you might end up in prison. You steal you might be stolen from. Not perfect no, but better than nothing and a start at least.

    Of course, a wise man once told me "damn if you do, damn if you don't". People who do cave to indifference, intolerance, and selfishness and skirt morality or even the law may achieve more than the honest man with no legal or social backlash. It is a shame. Again, better than before. Is it not?
    Outlander

    That your expectations are so low - better than nothing - indicates we're on the same depressing page in the storybook of humanity. The frightening thing is you're not being pessimistic when you say things like, "but better than nothing".

    That said, I feel my thoughts on the issue are rather naive.
  • Outlander
    1.8k


    Eh. There's hope. Then there's expectation. Then there's likely outcome. The three are generally unique.

    Fright is unexpected horror. Nothing more, nothing less. Subjective. You aren't seriously suggesting things were better before are you? Heh. You kill a scribe and ransack a library, there is no story to be told. Suddenly everything's dandy.

    "The only paradise is paradise lost"
    - Marcel Proust
  • TheMadFool
    13.8k
    Eh. There's hope. Then there's expectation. Then there's likely outcome. The three are generally unique.Outlander

    Let me rephrase my words then: that you believe "it's better than nothing" shows, given that these words are dripping with optimism, that there's not much hope in humanity, ergo, lower our expectations, as you have, as likely outcomes aren't going to change for a while at least.

    You aren't seriously suggesting things were better before are you?Outlander

    I'm not saying things were better before. Also, you aren't saying what you should be saying viz. things are better now than before. All you're saying with "it's better than nothing" is that things are a not as bad as before. To use a banking analogy, what you're saying is I have a lot less debt than before but the problem is I'm still in debt. I'm still in the red and that's our best side.
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