(05-28-2013 08:23 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  And yet many or most crimes are considered immoral. These statistics still serve as useful indicators of the state of society.

All elephants are gray but not all gray things are elephants.. It's meaningless since may immoral things *are* legal. If twice as many men cheated on their spouses but there were 10% fewer muggins would we be more moral?

(05-28-2013 09:02 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(05-28-2013 08:23 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  And yet many or most crimes are considered immoral. These statistics still serve as useful indicators of the state of society.

All elephants are gray but not all gray things are elephants.. It's meaningless since may immoral things *are* legal. If twice as many men cheated on their spouses but there were 10% fewer muggins would we be more moral?

It's not meaningless. You can't just ignore a bunch of good measures of ethical behavior just because these measures don't include all immoral behavior.

(05-27-2013 11:02 PM)ODUsmitty Wrote:  Due to a cold Memorial Day weekend and family visiting, we chose to forgo the neighborhood pool opening for an afternoon at dave and busters.

Had a wonderful time. My oldest son, adept at understanding which games produce the most tickets, was the clear victor for the afternoon.

On the ride home, I asked him to evenly divy up his "winnings" with his younger brother and cousin (and promised he would get hem returned at some future point). reluctanctly, he complied, and split the spoils of his efforts three ways.

At this point, I told him to feel what it means to be a taxpayer in today's society, where the fruit of your labors are forcibly shared with those that neither made the investment, nor the committment, to earn to the level that he achieved. He was pissed to the point of anger. I pressed this lesson further...... now understand that if you do not share your winnings to my satisifaction, you will be grounded with no Wii privilidges for a month. Livid, he made a comment not suitable for a 3rd grader, and then quietly sulked back in the car seat.

That angered me, for the submission to percieved government authority, but the point was made. I explained, after calming him down and reaffirming my love my son, that this is what socialism feels like for those of us that pay the bills, and I hold no moral obligation for him to pay for anyone else than the responsibilities that he created.

We laughed and discussed which times in the 20th century that such values were validated (and not), an he thanked me for better understanding why I so openly loathe those that choose not to contribute to society. It was a good weekend.

I feel like I just watched and 80's sitcom with the token lesson at the end.

But that was great stuff, bro.

(05-27-2013 10:40 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(05-27-2013 07:39 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  I'll tell you why I'm pessimistic about humanity. There was a survey done about 5 years ago. The question posed was this:

You are at a lake and about 20 feet away you find a 6 year old boy (or girl) drowning. Next to them is your own pet dog or cat, which is also drowning. You are certain that you can save one of them, but the odds are very small (10%) that you can save both of them. Which do you choose to attempt to save first?

The result of the survey was that a vast majority (approximately 75% or 80%) said they would choose to save their pet first, and then "hope" to save the drowning child.

To think that most people would rather save their freakin' dog or cat and let my son or daughter die was a wake up call for me. Most people are disgustingly shallow and selfish. Screw humanity.

Gonna need to see a link.

It was discussed for over an hour of the Dennis Prager national radio show. I was driving and I didn't pull over to write down the link.