VaneigheimAppreciationClub - We all used to want to punch you this much.
Come off it, i used to pontificate a fair bit and probably thought everyone on here were just dirty hippies who needed to be enlighted with my newly acquired ideas of spectacular society but i wasnt this much of a pretentious dick and i'm pretty sure i didnt refer to people as
thoughtless cattle
My point is emotion and compassion are no sound basis for politics. For example most people, even a cold-hearted materialist like me, will feel some kind of sadness or sympathy when they see, say, victims of a natural disaster on TV. But no-one, not even the most bleeding-heart do-gooder can realistically say it comes anywhere close to what they would feel if they saw someone they cared about killed or injured before their eyes.
Granted, but could human beings not try to look beyond the welfare of themselves and their extensions, the family? I think a lot of people feel a lot more pain than you when people who are somehow different to you suffer and die due to our laziness, ignorance and greed. I think the only sound bases for policy formation are compassion and love for those we don't know. Otherwise there's just this.
Don't you remember your talk of peoples "dead eyes" as you watched them on their commute?
ah come on, i was probably listening to Motorcycle Emptiness at the time, either that or i'd been imbued with the spirit of richey edwards.
charity and justice hmmm...
personally i think charity pretty much stinks. its an unequal, uncomfortable, patronising, power relationship between giver and receiver. it ignores any input from the receiver, encouraging the mindset that people are victims incapable of working together to resolve their problems and its also a sticky plaster and useful diversion loved by politicians. charity is not mutual aid and i don't see charity as desireable.
as for justice. well it doesn't mean very much really. its one of those relatively meaningless words to me, like peace. one persons justice is not what another would see as just and a hideously repressive society can be considered "just" and can also be peaceful.
this thread reminds me of a row we had in the pub with "ben the buddist" who liked words like charity and justice and thought if we all loved george bush enough all the bad things would go away.
Hi
I'm with you Lucy82.
Love
Chris
Forget charity. My motives are completrly egotistical. I want a society in which no-one can be 'left behind', because then there is no way I can end up in poverty and with no control over my life, and neither can my children. Thats why classless society makes sense to members of all classes, because in the 'battle of life' the rich can lose as well, or else have to keep battling just for a bit of security.
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I got as far as "justice and charity" but then started to choke on all the text. I take it "charity" was not initially mentioned as the act of helping those in distress through donations, voluntary work etc? I wouuld have thought the meaning might be closer to "trying to feel love for those outside yourself and your family" manifested by not judging people, helping those in need etc? As such it would seem a reasonable concept to try and build into a society. The fucking horror that we have just now professes links to christian morality, doesn't it? Lovely to see yet again the usual character assassination.