Good vs Evil

Is man born ...?

  • Evil

    Votes: 3 27.3%

  • Good

    Votes: 2 18.2%

  • Don't know/No opinion/Neither

    Votes: 6 54.5%
  • Total voters
    11
Ardsgaine said:
A child is born with certain needs and being helpless it requires someone else to serve those needs. That's in the nature of things. Part of growing up is learning to take on the responsibility of caring for oneself. That so many children don't learn that these days isn't because they're inherently evil, it's because their parents have this altruistic notion of parenthood as self-sacrifice. They dote on the child well into his teens and make him think that the universe revolves around him, and that everyone else exists to serve him.

That's not what I would call self-serving, though. It's damn sure not selfish, because a little putz like that ends up living a life of misery. He's totally oriented towards other people, because he can't survive without them.

Selfishness simply means concern with one's own interests. A truly selfish person is one who is capable of looking after himself, who doesn't exist for the sake of others and doesn't require them to exist for his sake.
Click to expand...

You are confusing 'independent' with 'selfish'. Selfish is when I buy you a beer but you won't pass the beernuts because YOU want them all...
 
Squiggy said:
You are confusing 'independent' with 'selfish'. Selfish is when I buy you a beer but you won't pass the beernuts because YOU want them all...
Click to expand...

So you're saying that selfishness is wanting something that you don't have a right to? Then you would say that people on welfare are selfish, and that the people who would prefer to keep the money they earned are independent?
 
Ardsgaine said:
Squiggy said:
You are confusing 'independent' with 'selfish'. Selfish is when I buy you a beer but you won't pass the beernuts because YOU want them all...
Click to expand...

So you're saying that selfishness is wanting something that you don't have a right to?
Click to expand...
it's not that you don't have a right to them, selfishness is when you hog all the beer nuts.
 
Squiggy said:
Its when you just don't want to share
Click to expand...

The way you set up your example, the guy owes you something because you gave him a beer, and presumably the beer nuts are put out on the bar for everyone to share... that means he's trying to keep something that doesn't belong to him.

Now, if he grew those beer nuts himself, and roasted them and salted them, then they're his beer nuts. If he's your bud and you're drinking together, you can call him an ass for not wanting to share the beer nuts when you've supplied the beer, and you'd be right. A guy like that is not a good friend. It's obvious he doesn't think much of you if he won't share his beer nuts.

If you're just passing by his house, though, and he doesn't know you from Adam, why should he share his beer nuts with you? They're his beer nuts and he has the right to keep them. That's what I'm calling selfish, dispensing with your beer nuts in accordance with your own values. Sharing only with the people who matter to you, not with just any drunk who comes down the street.

Now, do you consider this latter guy selfish or just "independent"?
 
Q said:
it's not that you don't have a right to them, selfishness is when you hog all the beer nuts
Click to expand...

That assumes that there's a static number of beer nuts in the world, and the problem is to divide them up evenly. But they're can be a greater or lesser number of beer nuts, depending on how much people produce. So the question is, don't the people who go through all the trouble of producing the beer nuts have a right to eat them? After all, the beer nuts wouldn't exist if they didn't create them. How can people accuse them of 'hogging' the beer nuts when it's only thanks to them that anyone has any beer nuts?

Damn... these beer nuts are making me thirsty! :p
 
My beer nuts were not a simile.:p They were just beer nuts. :D

...let's just spill his beer:headbang:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top