How can those born (or dropped) into a state of great wealth learn to understand the less fortunate? Virtually everyone who encounters these words has a decent education (at least enough to be able to read), access to computer and network facilities, work to do, clothes to wear, friendly neighbors and acquaintances, reasonably good health, plenty to eat, and a relatively safe place to live. How often do we think about the many who lack all or most of those comforts — who struggle amidst pain, poverty, hunger, and war?
And those of us near the top of the priviligentsia pyramid? Pick a few arguable gifts: rich, white, male, urban, English-speaking, heterosexual, powerful, well-connected, sleek, smart, sophisticated ... — what obligations accompany such luck? Is one's chief duty to maximize personal utility? To acquire control over more resources? To grow in fame? To build memorials? Or are there other proper ends in life?
Wednesday, June 07, 2000 at 06:05:57 (EDT) = 2000-06-07
(correlates: TemporalUtilitarianism, BlissfullyOblivious, OnWaste, ...)