Yesterday was a do nothing day where i felt like i was doing the right things. My bass blisters made it hard to practice that instrument, but i played a bunch of radiohead tunes, in preparation for my all radiohead open mic next thursday at the wave.
Oh yeah, i didn't do nothing, i went to the confed center, saw matt anderson and j.p. cormier. Dave was right, matt anderson is a big man. 400lbs. He knows his blues pretty well though. First time i ever saw an opening act get a standing ovation. J.P. didn't get one, for what it's worth. As different as the artists were, they were both able to pull off professionalism and personality. Lovely stuff.
I got home at 10 or so. And spent the better part of four hours reading and writing. I super loved it. I'm reading the ground beneath her feet and on equalibrium right now. Ones fiction, a love story circled around music. The other is non-fiction, loosely based around a balanced life, there's alot to it.
Hey! Here's a reason for a post:
On thursday i went to a free showing of "An Inconvenient Truth". If you haven't heard, it's the global warming video that Al Gore has done. I'd have to say that i found some of it pretty exciting. And by exciting, i mean relivant, powerful, and scary (if the idea of global catastrophe scares you). On the global warming path we're on the west bank of antarctica and the ice on greenland are both going to melt. When this happens the global water level is going to rise alot, and since the most populated areas are costal, there's going to be alot of people out of homes. In the vicinity of hundreds of millions. Alot.
The following day, i was at sobeys. And the cover of Rolling Stone caught my eye. It had Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Love those kids. Upon closer inspection of the cover, i found that Dr. Evil was looking to control the weather. Something crazy like that. I felt that article warranted reading.
Apparently, Dr. Evil is the nickname given to some scientist who thinks he has a solution to global warming. I'll try to explain as simply as possible. Which is about as complex as my understanding goes.
Global warming happens when the sun's rays enter our atmosphere and cannot escape. When a volcano erupts, certain gases go in our atmosphere that prevent the suns rays from entering our atmosphere in the first place. Scientists know what these gases are, and could send ships containing these gases up near our ozone layer to release these gases, thereby blocking the suns rays from entering our atmosphere, and lowering our temperature.
These gases are invisible to the naked eye. These gases, if released tomorrow, would start lowering the temperature globally within three months. Not only would we have the power to stop the ice caps from melting, but we could start them on a path to refreezing. If we stopped producing carbon dioxide tomorrow, greenhouse effects would slow their growth, but worldwide temperatures would be expected to continue to increase for 30 to 50 years, because the half-life of cfcs, methane and other greenhouse gases is so high.
Crazy stuff, eh? I think opponents to dr. evil's plans have some very strong reasons. We definately dont know what exactly will happen if we start tampering with our ozone in that way. Plus, it's a bit of a backdoor solution, in that we're almost encouraged to continue to use fossil fuels. As long as we can reverse global warming, there's no more problem. Lovely.
Arguments for it are kinda sad, and kinda unarguable. There's no other way to prevent this inevitable catastrophe.
Personally, i think we shouldn't do it. We should allow the mayhem. And hopefully that'll give us the incentive to start polluting less. Everyone reading this will have to be comfortable with the idea that we're going to live through a global catastrophy. Ah well, i like change.
Is it possible to stop the wealthy world leaders from making this happen? We'll see. It's a long ways away, but i'm excited with what the world will show me during this life.
peace and love
simon.
Michael Richards clearly lost control of his shit. But the word he used should not make any african americans feel lessened. They're just violent words coming out of a crazy guy.
Race is a really touchy issue. Homosexuality is up there too, although i'd say not quite as touchy. I think it's important to think about what the problem is, if there is a problem.
The problem in america right now, if there is a problem, is not that an entertainer used the n word. If there is a problem then that problem would be that people are treated or judged differently based on their race. While Michael Richards was using a racially charged word, he wasn't necessarily treating these black hecklers different than he'd treat white hecklers. He over reacted, lost his shit, and said a bunch of stuff that he regrets.
I think it's high time that we realize that use of the N word is not an example of racial inequality that exists. It is merely a symbol which represents (to alot of people) racism. If this symbol reminds someone of times they were discriminated against in the past, then it will hurt. But it is not the word itself that does the hurting. If Chris Rock or Dave Chappell calls someone an N word, then nobody bats an eye.
They're not the same thing, but the only difference is the state of mind and the tone of voice used. Michael Richards was angry. And he was probably trying to get a rise out of the people he was shouting at. It is very hard to be heckled while on stage, in his anger he likely just scanned his mind - split second - and tried to say the most hurtful thing he could think of to shut up his hecklers.
Does that mean that michael richards is a racist? No. Does it mean there's a racial problem in america? No. Is there a racial problem in america? Probably, but this incedent is no example of it. It was just an example of an angry man, shouting at people.
It's not an excuse. But i believe his only crime was losing his temper. I heard someone on tv today saying that michael richards is going to have to say goodbye to show business. You know what? That's fucking gay.
simon.
I'm in the sadness phase now. Gotta give my head a shake and move on.
My dear, sweet, yamaha F-310. 18th birthday gift. Had it for 5 years 7 months and a few weeks. Lost it late feb. 2006 coming north from nashville TN. In april I got a phone call saying that it was found. Went tree planting for a few months, thinking that it'd stay in the warehouse until i got a hold of them. Thought wrong.
There can only be one first. Effing fuck.
Sometimes i feel the need to convince myself that material things don't matter to me. I know they're not supposed to.
meditation
Still here, aware that silence speaks.
No doubt how clear the silence creeps
into the thoughts you've been forgetting;
into the world you'll soon be letting out.
effort
Time will watch you watch your hopes.
Keep you aware you're going nowhere.
Each day with it's different name
brings new joys with the same old pain.
Saturday night Kent, Dave, Melissa and myself went camping. I ate alot of mushrooms, and kinda decided to stop drinking. I'm not sure if it's something i'll follow through on. But it made sense at the time, and it makes sense now. I dont think that anyone in the world should be above charity, so in that regard i would accept offered drinks. That seems cheap though, it'd probably be more socially accepted if i just stopped drinking all together. But that seems alot less doable.
It's neat how a 'serious' drug like mushrooms can help a person get over booze. Lets see how temporary this is.
If i can just take a step back from those two paragraphs, I dont know why i'm involved in a search for how to better myself. Especially since i dont know how to better myself. If i stop drinking, is that any good? Who knows what 'good' is? I sure dont. Yet i'm still hoping for improvement. I suppose i can guess. While lacking knowledge, i certainly have ideas of what living rightly should consist of. But these ideas, or ideals, are imperfect.
Whatev. It doesn't seem like my questions have answers.
... as they would do onto you.
While i was sailing on mushrooms, and possibly at all times, i enjoy pointing out the faults of others. The term Grammar-Nazi came out. I like telling people when their jokes aren't funny. When their comments don't make sense. I think i come by it pretty honestly. And i think it's fair, because i like when people point out my faults. It's the only way i'll learn, i reckon.
Hurrah for entertaining posts. And ones like this, too. Hurrah.
This was the winning trivia team name last wednesday. Rough idea presented by D. Fleming and written out by some trivia friendly that i dont know the name of.
Anyway, should i join this facebook deal? Everyone seems to have one, and while that's not a good reason to jump off a bridge, it might be a good reason to join this internet social collective.
Is facebook better than other internet social scenes? Like Hi5 and such. I got "tagged" by some similar contact system this morning. Would it be necessary to join multiple things?
Is there any pride in being not involved in something that everyone does? I remember years ago, people started using MSN, and i felt like i was cooler cause i used ICQ, and wasn't falling in line with the other sheep. I have since fallen in line, and i'm not entirely disapointed with the results.
I think i've mostly talked myself into this. Reasons for not doing it being sadder and more baseless than reasons for. See you on the interweb.
The system works! Or, it doesn't work. Either way, i'm getting paid off.
After a grueling 5 week wait, I got a friendly letter from service canada. They've decided that since there are no tree planting jobs on pei during the winter (or some other logic, i dunno) I, simon newton, am entitled to 349 dollars per week. The application was retroactive from october 1st, so i'm looking at a nice lump sum of 1745. I promise that i will keep working hard on my drum skillz and poetry skillz, so that someday someone is proud that i'm a canadian. It's the least i can do.
Like, really. The absolute least. I'm still only looking out for number one.
peace and love, baby.
There's this article in a textbook of mine, it's titled ethical egoism and was written by James Rachels. Ethical Egoism is the belief that people have no moral duty except to do what is best for ourselves. It's a very well layed out article.
I thought that i'd write my own post on the subject, but i dont feel like i'd be doing the genuine article justice. Or, i should say, i wouldn't be doing the idea of ethical egoism justice. So with the book by my side, i'm going to attempt a joint effort. This post is effectively an elementary student's answer to plagerism. Timmy bought a chocolate bar will be replaced by, "the chocolate bar was bought by Timmy." Moving on.
The first few paragraphs explain the situation of children starving in third world countries, how we have excess money that we choose to spend on luxeries (movies for example) and how when confronted with this moral delema, we usually explain that we dont ever think of the problem. By living where we do, we are effectively insulated from the issues of pain that exist elsewhere.
Moving past why we behave as we do, it's important to wonder what is our duty? What should we do?
Do we have moral duties to other people? Why?
Here's an argument for ethical egoism:
Each of us is intimately familiar with our own individual wants and needs. Moreover, each of us is uniquely placed to pursue those wants and needs effectively. At the same time, we know the desires and needs of other people only imperfectly, and we are not well situated to pursue them. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that if we set out to be "our brother's keeper," we would often bungle the job and end up doing more mischief than good.
On the contrary, and on the side of common sense, if you give a poor man some money to buy a sandwich then you are likely not doing mischief. That said, ethical egoism says nothing of avoiding doing things for other people, it just says that our own reasons and our own personal motivation must be primary.
The book faults the twice above argument in the following way:
The argument says
1. We aught to do what will promote the best interests of everyone alike.
2. The interests of everyone will best be promoted if each of us adopts the policy of pursuing our own interests exclusively.
3. Therefore, each of us should adopt the policy of pursuing our own interests exclusively.
The book says if we accept this reasoning, then we are not ethical egoists at all, because we are doing what we do with the intent of the greater good. Even though we might behave like egoists, we are actually doing what we believe will help everyone. Rather then being egoists, we turn out to be altruists with a peculiar view of what in fact promotes the general welfare.
It's a good point, for sure. But if anything, it compounds my satisfaction with egoism. It seems likely that i'm an altruist with a peculiar view of what promotes general welfare.
A very different argument for egoism comes from Ayn Rand. Ethical Egoism, in her view, is the only ethical philosophy that respects the integrity of the individual human life. She regards altruism as a totally destructive idea, both for society as a whole, and for the lives of individuals taken in by it. Altruism leads to a denial of the individual. "If a man accepts the ethics of altruism," she writes, "his first concern is not how to live his life, but how to sacrifice it."
If i may go back to my example of giving some coin to a homeless dude, i do not believe that it is a sacrifice. Money is an object. And i think that giving of your objects is not denying your personal worth at all, i might even say that giving from yourself enhances your worth. Giving of yourself without your personal interests at heart is what kills and denies your self worth. My two cents. Argue, it's the only way i'll learn.
I'm gonna stop here,
peace and love,
simon.
We (Kent, Dave, Mikey, Simon) left pei on friday, headed for fredericton. Kent's brother is leaving fredericton for Nunivut in a short time, so kent wished to see him. Fredericton treated us well. After fredericton, a quote book was developed. Unfortionately it wasn't on us at all times, so many delicious quotes were forgotten. But as for the ones i do have, fake names will be used.
At Brent's (kent's brother's) house we played a round of poker, where the winner got a drink from everyone else at the table. I had a slow start to drinking, due to a fidgetty heart. And being on my second drink was probably a big reason for winning the tourney. We headed to the bars at midnightish. Good music, a good bit of dancing.
Out for a smoke, mikey and I met a man named darryl. Darryl asked us to call him blue, but for the rest of the trip he was remembered as "gay darryl". Darryl was a fun enough guy to talk to, in that he was very 'out there' yet obviously comfortable enough to laugh when other people might expect offense to be taken. This attitude of darryl's was the reason Roy was able to say "are you hoping we get drunk enough to be gay?".
Two girls showed up sometime in the bar. Those girls were around after the bar. Connor (drunk as a boot) was speaking of nothing but poutine. The girls joined us in search for a taxicab. When we were in the cab, on the way back to brent's house, one of the girls was telling a story about several weekends ago, in which her conclusionary line was "well, we're not sluts". At this point Larry put forward, in a clear tone, "that's yet to be determined."
Oh right, and we met up with this crazy friend of kent's in the bar as well, which was strange cause he's not from fredericton. We didn't know why he was there, didn't ask. He's kinda crazy, though. He admitted to having an older woman fetish while sober, to a mixed table of 5 during what had been normal dinner conversation. We got a quote out of him.
"I got a date with that 43 year old at the gym, but she looks max,max, 33."
The next morning, when we were back on the road Jimmy confessed that he had woken up early, and attempted to take a shower, but "I couldn't get the shower to work, so i poured a nice hot bath."
Driving around eastern quebec while looking for a restaurant in what appeared to be a primarily resedential zone Fred blurts out "why don't we stop at a house and ask for food, in exchange for naked."
The eastern quebec village we settled upon was Rivieres De Loup, and i think we can all agree that it was a worthwhile stop. After walking up and down the road looking for a suitable place to eat, Owen says "hey! lets eat at the sex triangle." [a logo for a restaurant had a scantally clad woman within the triangle for racking pool balls]
There were split entrances or something for this place. Cause we went into the building behind the sex triangle, but there was no sex inside. It was saturday mid afternoon, so that could've had something to do with it. They did, however, have a foosball table. Foosball quickly became a reoccuring theme of the trip. A pitcher of foosball and five games of beer later, we were back on the road. Still looking for a restaurant.
In looking for a restaurant Ryan makes the clever comment "hey, they have port! ... or a door" and Raoul makes a bit of a racially charged joke, saying "hey look, an ethnic food restaurant - CLOSED."
We found a dead deer tied to the roof of a vehicle. I cannot stress how much i laughed. I know it doesn't sound funny. I'm not sorry.
We settled on a mike's restaurant for some food. The conversation that took place in this restaurant is some of the most offensive stuff i've ever been a part of. We pointed out that if we were in an english speaking restaurant we would've been kicked out long ago.
Still lots of laughs based on the sighting of the deer tied to a vehicle. We talked about removing the deer and replacing it with me, tied to the roof of the vehicle. Kent has pictures of the deer, i really hope they become publicly available.
[someone is laughing with their hand up]
"I believe that [johan] has something to add"
johan - "no. Just a review. 'tight like punching through a baby'."
A chick walks by a window, and Donnie says "I'll give you a dollar to chase and tackle that woman screaming 'Deer Meat!' And then tie her to the roof of a vehicle."
Spaghetti was being eaten and Tim pointed out the size of the spool of spaghetti on the end of the fork. Someone roughed him up a bit about using the word spool. And in his defense James pointed out "no, that sounds right... a spool is a cord wrapped around a fulcrum."
We left rivieres de loup and headed for montreal. Delightful music. A few more quotes appeared at this point.
"Lets continue this conversation"-"except you shut up."
And at one point, the driver was stopped at a railway crossing. The train was visible, to the right of the crossing, and definately didn't appear to be moving, or causing danger to whomever wished to cross the tracks. It was pointed out that crossing the track was still possible with the guards down, by swerving left then right and pulling through. Then the guards came up and we proceeded.
"If you weren't gutless we would already be through this"
"yeah? if you were gutless... you... probably wouldn't have said that."
Saturday night consisted of poker and drinking and foosball and singing. Really great night. Sunday we saw the decemberists, who were effing spectacular. It's been really great seeing josh simon again. I wish i felt like going into further detail about montreal, but i really dont. So i'm going to end this post with the last recorded quote. The only quote coming from within the city limits of montreal.
"Later on this evening I'm going to absolutely wreck your balls."
And you know what? He did.
I think pain is often necessary for growth. I believe Kahlil Gibran wrote that pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses our understanding. It's a nice visual.
But not all pain can be good, that's just absurd. If i hit my hand with a hammer, i can't imagine any good coming from it. If i lift weights and my muscles hurt, that seems good to me. If i do some stretches or sit crosslegged for a while, and my joints hurt, is that good or bad? Is that progress or is it limiting. What's the deal with headaches? Should i take drugs to make the pain stop, or embrace the pain as though i'm being pruned like a rosebush - prepared for more blossoms to spring forth.
that's all.
Oh yeah, i didn't do nothing, i went to the confed center, saw matt anderson and j.p. cormier. Dave was right, matt anderson is a big man. 400lbs. He knows his blues pretty well though. First time i ever saw an opening act get a standing ovation. J.P. didn't get one, for what it's worth. As different as the artists were, they were both able to pull off professionalism and personality. Lovely stuff.
I got home at 10 or so. And spent the better part of four hours reading and writing. I super loved it. I'm reading the ground beneath her feet and on equalibrium right now. Ones fiction, a love story circled around music. The other is non-fiction, loosely based around a balanced life, there's alot to it.
Hey! Here's a reason for a post:
On thursday i went to a free showing of "An Inconvenient Truth". If you haven't heard, it's the global warming video that Al Gore has done. I'd have to say that i found some of it pretty exciting. And by exciting, i mean relivant, powerful, and scary (if the idea of global catastrophe scares you). On the global warming path we're on the west bank of antarctica and the ice on greenland are both going to melt. When this happens the global water level is going to rise alot, and since the most populated areas are costal, there's going to be alot of people out of homes. In the vicinity of hundreds of millions. Alot.
The following day, i was at sobeys. And the cover of Rolling Stone caught my eye. It had Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Love those kids. Upon closer inspection of the cover, i found that Dr. Evil was looking to control the weather. Something crazy like that. I felt that article warranted reading.
Apparently, Dr. Evil is the nickname given to some scientist who thinks he has a solution to global warming. I'll try to explain as simply as possible. Which is about as complex as my understanding goes.
Global warming happens when the sun's rays enter our atmosphere and cannot escape. When a volcano erupts, certain gases go in our atmosphere that prevent the suns rays from entering our atmosphere in the first place. Scientists know what these gases are, and could send ships containing these gases up near our ozone layer to release these gases, thereby blocking the suns rays from entering our atmosphere, and lowering our temperature.
These gases are invisible to the naked eye. These gases, if released tomorrow, would start lowering the temperature globally within three months. Not only would we have the power to stop the ice caps from melting, but we could start them on a path to refreezing. If we stopped producing carbon dioxide tomorrow, greenhouse effects would slow their growth, but worldwide temperatures would be expected to continue to increase for 30 to 50 years, because the half-life of cfcs, methane and other greenhouse gases is so high.
Crazy stuff, eh? I think opponents to dr. evil's plans have some very strong reasons. We definately dont know what exactly will happen if we start tampering with our ozone in that way. Plus, it's a bit of a backdoor solution, in that we're almost encouraged to continue to use fossil fuels. As long as we can reverse global warming, there's no more problem. Lovely.
Arguments for it are kinda sad, and kinda unarguable. There's no other way to prevent this inevitable catastrophe.
Personally, i think we shouldn't do it. We should allow the mayhem. And hopefully that'll give us the incentive to start polluting less. Everyone reading this will have to be comfortable with the idea that we're going to live through a global catastrophy. Ah well, i like change.
Is it possible to stop the wealthy world leaders from making this happen? We'll see. It's a long ways away, but i'm excited with what the world will show me during this life.
peace and love
simon.
Not sure how well this post is going to turn out. I've gotta try, though.
Michael Richards clearly lost control of his shit. But the word he used should not make any african americans feel lessened. They're just violent words coming out of a crazy guy.
Race is a really touchy issue. Homosexuality is up there too, although i'd say not quite as touchy. I think it's important to think about what the problem is, if there is a problem.
The problem in america right now, if there is a problem, is not that an entertainer used the n word. If there is a problem then that problem would be that people are treated or judged differently based on their race. While Michael Richards was using a racially charged word, he wasn't necessarily treating these black hecklers different than he'd treat white hecklers. He over reacted, lost his shit, and said a bunch of stuff that he regrets.
I think it's high time that we realize that use of the N word is not an example of racial inequality that exists. It is merely a symbol which represents (to alot of people) racism. If this symbol reminds someone of times they were discriminated against in the past, then it will hurt. But it is not the word itself that does the hurting. If Chris Rock or Dave Chappell calls someone an N word, then nobody bats an eye.
They're not the same thing, but the only difference is the state of mind and the tone of voice used. Michael Richards was angry. And he was probably trying to get a rise out of the people he was shouting at. It is very hard to be heckled while on stage, in his anger he likely just scanned his mind - split second - and tried to say the most hurtful thing he could think of to shut up his hecklers.
Does that mean that michael richards is a racist? No. Does it mean there's a racial problem in america? No. Is there a racial problem in america? Probably, but this incedent is no example of it. It was just an example of an angry man, shouting at people.
It's not an excuse. But i believe his only crime was losing his temper. I heard someone on tv today saying that michael richards is going to have to say goodbye to show business. You know what? That's fucking gay.
simon.
Sometimes i feel the need to convince myself that material things don't matter to me. I know they're not supposed to. Material things exist now, and in that sense they're definately temporary. Any joy i get from having something will translate into sadness when that object is gone.
I'm in the sadness phase now. Gotta give my head a shake and move on.
My dear, sweet, yamaha F-310. 18th birthday gift. Had it for 5 years 7 months and a few weeks. Lost it late feb. 2006 coming north from nashville TN. In april I got a phone call saying that it was found. Went tree planting for a few months, thinking that it'd stay in the warehouse until i got a hold of them. Thought wrong.
There can only be one first. Effing fuck.
Sometimes i feel the need to convince myself that material things don't matter to me. I know they're not supposed to.
edit: punctuation
meditation
Still here, aware that silence speaks.
No doubt how clear the silence creeps
into the thoughts you've been forgetting;
into the world you'll soon be letting out.
effort
Time will watch you watch your hopes.
Keep you aware you're going nowhere.
Each day with it's different name
brings new joys with the same old pain.
Do onto others...
Saturday night Kent, Dave, Melissa and myself went camping. I ate alot of mushrooms, and kinda decided to stop drinking. I'm not sure if it's something i'll follow through on. But it made sense at the time, and it makes sense now. I dont think that anyone in the world should be above charity, so in that regard i would accept offered drinks. That seems cheap though, it'd probably be more socially accepted if i just stopped drinking all together. But that seems alot less doable.
It's neat how a 'serious' drug like mushrooms can help a person get over booze. Lets see how temporary this is.
If i can just take a step back from those two paragraphs, I dont know why i'm involved in a search for how to better myself. Especially since i dont know how to better myself. If i stop drinking, is that any good? Who knows what 'good' is? I sure dont. Yet i'm still hoping for improvement. I suppose i can guess. While lacking knowledge, i certainly have ideas of what living rightly should consist of. But these ideas, or ideals, are imperfect.
Whatev. It doesn't seem like my questions have answers.
... as they would do onto you.
While i was sailing on mushrooms, and possibly at all times, i enjoy pointing out the faults of others. The term Grammar-Nazi came out. I like telling people when their jokes aren't funny. When their comments don't make sense. I think i come by it pretty honestly. And i think it's fair, because i like when people point out my faults. It's the only way i'll learn, i reckon.
Hurrah for entertaining posts. And ones like this, too. Hurrah.
I tagged your mother on facebook and all i got was a virus.
This was the winning trivia team name last wednesday. Rough idea presented by D. Fleming and written out by some trivia friendly that i dont know the name of.
Anyway, should i join this facebook deal? Everyone seems to have one, and while that's not a good reason to jump off a bridge, it might be a good reason to join this internet social collective.
Is facebook better than other internet social scenes? Like Hi5 and such. I got "tagged" by some similar contact system this morning. Would it be necessary to join multiple things?
Is there any pride in being not involved in something that everyone does? I remember years ago, people started using MSN, and i felt like i was cooler cause i used ICQ, and wasn't falling in line with the other sheep. I have since fallen in line, and i'm not entirely disapointed with the results.
I think i've mostly talked myself into this. Reasons for not doing it being sadder and more baseless than reasons for. See you on the interweb.
Wooo!
The system works! Or, it doesn't work. Either way, i'm getting paid off.
After a grueling 5 week wait, I got a friendly letter from service canada. They've decided that since there are no tree planting jobs on pei during the winter (or some other logic, i dunno) I, simon newton, am entitled to 349 dollars per week. The application was retroactive from october 1st, so i'm looking at a nice lump sum of 1745. I promise that i will keep working hard on my drum skillz and poetry skillz, so that someday someone is proud that i'm a canadian. It's the least i can do.
Like, really. The absolute least. I'm still only looking out for number one.
peace and love, baby.
A tree does not worry whether it's blocking the sun from any other tree. A tree just grows. Isn't that best?
There's this article in a textbook of mine, it's titled ethical egoism and was written by James Rachels. Ethical Egoism is the belief that people have no moral duty except to do what is best for ourselves. It's a very well layed out article.
I thought that i'd write my own post on the subject, but i dont feel like i'd be doing the genuine article justice. Or, i should say, i wouldn't be doing the idea of ethical egoism justice. So with the book by my side, i'm going to attempt a joint effort. This post is effectively an elementary student's answer to plagerism. Timmy bought a chocolate bar will be replaced by, "the chocolate bar was bought by Timmy." Moving on.
The first few paragraphs explain the situation of children starving in third world countries, how we have excess money that we choose to spend on luxeries (movies for example) and how when confronted with this moral delema, we usually explain that we dont ever think of the problem. By living where we do, we are effectively insulated from the issues of pain that exist elsewhere.
Moving past why we behave as we do, it's important to wonder what is our duty? What should we do?
Do we have moral duties to other people? Why?
Here's an argument for ethical egoism:
Each of us is intimately familiar with our own individual wants and needs. Moreover, each of us is uniquely placed to pursue those wants and needs effectively. At the same time, we know the desires and needs of other people only imperfectly, and we are not well situated to pursue them. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that if we set out to be "our brother's keeper," we would often bungle the job and end up doing more mischief than good.
On the contrary, and on the side of common sense, if you give a poor man some money to buy a sandwich then you are likely not doing mischief. That said, ethical egoism says nothing of avoiding doing things for other people, it just says that our own reasons and our own personal motivation must be primary.
The book faults the twice above argument in the following way:
The argument says
1. We aught to do what will promote the best interests of everyone alike.
2. The interests of everyone will best be promoted if each of us adopts the policy of pursuing our own interests exclusively.
3. Therefore, each of us should adopt the policy of pursuing our own interests exclusively.
The book says if we accept this reasoning, then we are not ethical egoists at all, because we are doing what we do with the intent of the greater good. Even though we might behave like egoists, we are actually doing what we believe will help everyone. Rather then being egoists, we turn out to be altruists with a peculiar view of what in fact promotes the general welfare.
It's a good point, for sure. But if anything, it compounds my satisfaction with egoism. It seems likely that i'm an altruist with a peculiar view of what promotes general welfare.
A very different argument for egoism comes from Ayn Rand. Ethical Egoism, in her view, is the only ethical philosophy that respects the integrity of the individual human life. She regards altruism as a totally destructive idea, both for society as a whole, and for the lives of individuals taken in by it. Altruism leads to a denial of the individual. "If a man accepts the ethics of altruism," she writes, "his first concern is not how to live his life, but how to sacrifice it."
If i may go back to my example of giving some coin to a homeless dude, i do not believe that it is a sacrifice. Money is an object. And i think that giving of your objects is not denying your personal worth at all, i might even say that giving from yourself enhances your worth. Giving of yourself without your personal interests at heart is what kills and denies your self worth. My two cents. Argue, it's the only way i'll learn.
I'm gonna stop here,
peace and love,
simon.
The road trip to the decemberists in montreal has been declared a complete success. So many laughs. So much foosball. Lots of drinks. Lots of music. Fuck yes. If you were there, you'd have had a good time. It's how it was.
We (Kent, Dave, Mikey, Simon) left pei on friday, headed for fredericton. Kent's brother is leaving fredericton for Nunivut in a short time, so kent wished to see him. Fredericton treated us well. After fredericton, a quote book was developed. Unfortionately it wasn't on us at all times, so many delicious quotes were forgotten. But as for the ones i do have, fake names will be used.
At Brent's (kent's brother's) house we played a round of poker, where the winner got a drink from everyone else at the table. I had a slow start to drinking, due to a fidgetty heart. And being on my second drink was probably a big reason for winning the tourney. We headed to the bars at midnightish. Good music, a good bit of dancing.
Out for a smoke, mikey and I met a man named darryl. Darryl asked us to call him blue, but for the rest of the trip he was remembered as "gay darryl". Darryl was a fun enough guy to talk to, in that he was very 'out there' yet obviously comfortable enough to laugh when other people might expect offense to be taken. This attitude of darryl's was the reason Roy was able to say "are you hoping we get drunk enough to be gay?".
Two girls showed up sometime in the bar. Those girls were around after the bar. Connor (drunk as a boot) was speaking of nothing but poutine. The girls joined us in search for a taxicab. When we were in the cab, on the way back to brent's house, one of the girls was telling a story about several weekends ago, in which her conclusionary line was "well, we're not sluts". At this point Larry put forward, in a clear tone, "that's yet to be determined."
Oh right, and we met up with this crazy friend of kent's in the bar as well, which was strange cause he's not from fredericton. We didn't know why he was there, didn't ask. He's kinda crazy, though. He admitted to having an older woman fetish while sober, to a mixed table of 5 during what had been normal dinner conversation. We got a quote out of him.
"I got a date with that 43 year old at the gym, but she looks max,max, 33."
The next morning, when we were back on the road Jimmy confessed that he had woken up early, and attempted to take a shower, but "I couldn't get the shower to work, so i poured a nice hot bath."
Driving around eastern quebec while looking for a restaurant in what appeared to be a primarily resedential zone Fred blurts out "why don't we stop at a house and ask for food, in exchange for naked."
The eastern quebec village we settled upon was Rivieres De Loup, and i think we can all agree that it was a worthwhile stop. After walking up and down the road looking for a suitable place to eat, Owen says "hey! lets eat at the sex triangle." [a logo for a restaurant had a scantally clad woman within the triangle for racking pool balls]
There were split entrances or something for this place. Cause we went into the building behind the sex triangle, but there was no sex inside. It was saturday mid afternoon, so that could've had something to do with it. They did, however, have a foosball table. Foosball quickly became a reoccuring theme of the trip. A pitcher of foosball and five games of beer later, we were back on the road. Still looking for a restaurant.
In looking for a restaurant Ryan makes the clever comment "hey, they have port! ... or a door" and Raoul makes a bit of a racially charged joke, saying "hey look, an ethnic food restaurant - CLOSED."
We found a dead deer tied to the roof of a vehicle. I cannot stress how much i laughed. I know it doesn't sound funny. I'm not sorry.
We settled on a mike's restaurant for some food. The conversation that took place in this restaurant is some of the most offensive stuff i've ever been a part of. We pointed out that if we were in an english speaking restaurant we would've been kicked out long ago.
Still lots of laughs based on the sighting of the deer tied to a vehicle. We talked about removing the deer and replacing it with me, tied to the roof of the vehicle. Kent has pictures of the deer, i really hope they become publicly available.
[someone is laughing with their hand up]
"I believe that [johan] has something to add"
johan - "no. Just a review. 'tight like punching through a baby'."
A chick walks by a window, and Donnie says "I'll give you a dollar to chase and tackle that woman screaming 'Deer Meat!' And then tie her to the roof of a vehicle."
Spaghetti was being eaten and Tim pointed out the size of the spool of spaghetti on the end of the fork. Someone roughed him up a bit about using the word spool. And in his defense James pointed out "no, that sounds right... a spool is a cord wrapped around a fulcrum."
We left rivieres de loup and headed for montreal. Delightful music. A few more quotes appeared at this point.
"Lets continue this conversation"-"except you shut up."
And at one point, the driver was stopped at a railway crossing. The train was visible, to the right of the crossing, and definately didn't appear to be moving, or causing danger to whomever wished to cross the tracks. It was pointed out that crossing the track was still possible with the guards down, by swerving left then right and pulling through. Then the guards came up and we proceeded.
"If you weren't gutless we would already be through this"
"yeah? if you were gutless... you... probably wouldn't have said that."
Saturday night consisted of poker and drinking and foosball and singing. Really great night. Sunday we saw the decemberists, who were effing spectacular. It's been really great seeing josh simon again. I wish i felt like going into further detail about montreal, but i really dont. So i'm going to end this post with the last recorded quote. The only quote coming from within the city limits of montreal.
"Later on this evening I'm going to absolutely wreck your balls."
And you know what? He did.
Good pain/bad pain.
I think pain is often necessary for growth. I believe Kahlil Gibran wrote that pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses our understanding. It's a nice visual.
But not all pain can be good, that's just absurd. If i hit my hand with a hammer, i can't imagine any good coming from it. If i lift weights and my muscles hurt, that seems good to me. If i do some stretches or sit crosslegged for a while, and my joints hurt, is that good or bad? Is that progress or is it limiting. What's the deal with headaches? Should i take drugs to make the pain stop, or embrace the pain as though i'm being pruned like a rosebush - prepared for more blossoms to spring forth.
that's all.