People are People. Period. That's the title for Paulius's blog post for today. And his post is a riff from RayRay, which is something he stole from Facebook. I'm writing up a new post, because I've got too much to say for a simple comment on Paulius's post... and he created an entire post because he had too much for a mere comment on RayRay's blog. I love it.
Paul made some reasonable points, but in the end, I don't agree with him. For those of you out there in blogland, take note... this doesn't mean I think he's an idiot. Quite the contrary, in fact. I think he's a pretty smart guy. One fact that many people overlook is that outside of the scientific realm, people can observe the same situation(s) and reach different conclusions.
In fact, there are areas of his post where we agree. If someone else wants to donate to a given charity or cause, it's not really my business. In the case of Haiti, I'll even go a step further and bring up a point Paulius never mentioned... a dollar given to Haitian relief efforts will have more impact than a dollar given to American homelessness (one example brought forth in these posts), because the cost of living is much lower in Haiti.
From here, however, our opinions -- and that's what we're talking about here - opinions -- diverge. And I think it all boils down to one core fallacy... the mistaken belief that all life is equally valuable. It's all well and good to say that every human life is sacred, but in real life, that's not how it works. I'll use myself as an example. It is my belief that my life, and the lives of my family are most important. Coming in a close second is the well-being of my friends. I also believe that productive members of society are more important than criminals and vagabonds, and that the needs my fellow countrymen come before the needs of others.
I'm not saying "don't help Haiti." What I am saying, though, is that our American family should come before our international friends. My position is not from the Utopian Paradox that Paul mentioned. It's based in the reality of economics... people have generally unlimited wants and needs, but there's a limited supply to fulfill these desires.
But there's another place where I agree with Paulius... if you're not giving to anyone -- and taxes don't count -- you don't really belong in this discussion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
By the way... as a Christian, I hope to reach a point where all life is equally sacred. Until then, I am honest enough to admit that I don't believe that.
Fair enough...but I'd also like to think that severity of need is a factor as well.
To be completely honest, the whole reason I wrote my post is because a few days ago I read another thing going around facebook which basically said "Who helped up after Katrina? NO-ONE!!! and now we're EXPECTED to bail out Haiti." and RayRay's just tipped me over the edge.
Unfortunately, too many people seem to have the idea that America helps everyone else and no-one helps America. As I mentioned in my post, eighty countries helped after Katrina, and it's not just America sending aid to Haiti.
As one final point, I won't donate money to places like Cameroon and other places that are poor because of government banditry where little of the sent aid ever reaches the people...but in the aftermath of a disaster, I'll send a few bucks.
who knew i had the power to incite such debate!
i'd missed the point of who all helped the U.S. after Katrina and I'll be the first to admit I let my passions overrule my fact finding.
But my original thought stands:when are we going to take time from helping everyone outside our borders and help our own?
I believe if we take the time to actually live up to our slogan of being the "best damned nation in the world" that we could help other nations even better.
Another referance to Depeche mode, though i see that it was unintentional. (sp)
Post a Comment