A note about altruism

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Sunday April 27, 2008 · 10:39 PM PDT

2008/04/27 · 22:39

(This was largely inspired by PHIL. I. STINE over at My Left Wing, in a comment he made on my previous essay. I wanted to expand on the answer I gave him, since it's a topic that comes up a lot)

Also at enigmaengine, The WIld WIld Left, and My Left Wing.

One of the constant debates across multiple disciplines at my university is the question of altruism. Does it exist, and if it does, is it better to be altruistically selfless, or selfish (or at least self-interested).

Now by altruism, I mean acting for the benefit of others with no personal motive for yourself. No 'good-feelings' reward, no dependency on karma, nothing. Just pure kindness.

pegleghippie

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Monday April 21, 2008 · 12:37 PM PDT

2008/04/21 · 12:37

Also at Enigma engine

This post may be a bit all over the place, and It will definitely be on the heavy side, so strap in now or get out of the car.

Simply stated, my purpose here is to make the idea of a 'rational individual' a little more concrete.

Some of you may see my phrase-choice 'rational individual' and think of economics. Good job! That's what I was thinking of too when I came up with these ideas. Bear in mind that I have not formally studied economics in depth, so the following may be old news, but it's so specific, and only briefly touches on the field of economics, that I doubt I'll be committing any Faux Pas' here.

pegleghippie

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Thursday February 14, 2008 · 8:36 AM PST

2008/02/14 · 08:36

(This is a repost, by request and with permission, of an essay by Maryscott O'Connor from MyLeftWing.

title=
Also known as BeagleandTabby

Maryscott O'Connor wrote:

The father of our one-time friend and blogging colleague, Donovan Barks, informed me last night that his son jumped to his death from the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday at approximately 3pm yesterday:

I'm sorry to tell you that Donovan is no longer with us. He jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge at 3pm today. He is at peace. For that I am thankful.

Donovan suffered from a crippling mental illness for most of his life; despite his struggles, he was known to many -- including me -- as a good friend and comrade-in-arms.

pegleghippie

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Monday January 14, 2008 · 8:15 PM PST

2008/01/14 · 20:15

Just a head's up.

My friend Bing McGhandi over at Happy Jihad's house of Pancakes has come up with a fabulous idea: any candidate that doesn't call waterboarding torture will be water-boarded, just to see if it changes their minds.

If you like the idea, you can sign his petition, linked from his site.

pegleghippie

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Tuesday October 02, 2007 · 3:21 AM PDT

2007/10/02 · 03:21

you cant see the pegleg but its there. and i have that cool beard. for reals.

I was in the shower and i had a cool idea that turned into a content-lite link-heavy essay. Yay!

So here's the idea. Lets cut the bullshit and label political ideologies by their founders and/or prominent members, rather than they're boring philosophical names. This will make us remember history and help us understand why certain people are douchebags: they follow the thinking of douchebags.

pegleghippie

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Sunday March 18, 2007 · 11:09 AM PDT

2007/03/18 · 11:09

also at My Left Wing

I know people have already written about the protest in DC yesterday, But I really wanted to share my experience, and mostly, the people that I met there. So if you all don't mind a little self-indulgence, and plenty of praise for what I perceive as the new hippies, then read on!

I arrived at my friend Megan's dorm at GMU around 2:30 am on saturday. I left late, I had stuff to do on Friday, yadayadayada, anyone else would have thought it rude to show up so late, but not to the three people in that room.

pegleghippie

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Friday February 09, 2007 · 4:38 PM PST

2007/02/09 · 16:38

Its not often that I am in communication with organizational presidents or successful authors, and its even more rare for them to insult me. Yesterday was just my lucky day i guess, as Brannon Howse from the Christian Worldview Network fulfilled all of those traits when he felt felt it was necessary to email me.

Poll

39 votes Show Results

the name bannon howse is...

39 votes Vote Now!

the name bannon howse is...

wierd, bannon is almost brandon, but not quite

1 vote

wierd, howse is almost house, not quite though

0 votes

double weird, its two almost real words

17 votes

a good reason to go insane and start destroying the separation of church and state

10 votes

not THAT wierd, come on

3 votes

where do you get off making fun of some guys name?

8 votes

Checking my 'blindspots'

pegleghippie

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Wednesday January 31, 2007 · 10:49 PM PST

2007/01/31 · 22:49

A while back a poster on redstate wrote an article entitled Liberalism's Blind Spot: The Cause of Our Moral Confusion, where the author attempted to get to the bottom of why those damned liberals support such obviously out of whack ideas. Read it if you wish, it got me thinking, but if you would rather just see a summary of the areas that my diary pertains to, then the general idea is we liberals have a 'moral blind spot,' specifically an utter mistrust of power. We tend to always side with the underdog, even when the underdog is not such a good person.

Liberals do exhibit this behavior, and I will go so far as to say that we do actually favor "bad guys" in some cases. However, this is not a 'moral blind spot'--it is a recognition of what causes immoral actions: advantage. Advantage and power go hand in hand, in several cases one leads to another.

Poll

6 votes Show Results

And as for Redstate...

6 votes Vote Now!

And as for Redstate...

That stupid 'democratic-socialist' flag after the election was tasteless

2 votes

better than Freeperland

1 vote

Once resonable, now corporatized

2 votes

all of the above

1 vote

I'm right and I can prove it

pegleghippie

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Sunday November 26, 2006 · 5:00 PM PST

2006/11/26 · 17:00

I'm still young and stupid, so forgive my ignorance if this is all common knowledge, and feel free to educate me in the finer points of moral philosophy. That being said, I've recently decided that every moral system, every ethical line of thought, is born from the idea that we want humanity to survive. Even if there is some prejudice, some hate for a certain part of humanity, everyone who develops a sense of right and wrong develops it thinking that it will be better for people. So someone can sacrifice themselves for the lives of others even though it obviously goes against their personal interests.

I'm going somewhere political with this i promise. Kant said that it's not enough to be moral or ethical, that there has to be some value behind those morals to make someone behave in a good way. This meant religion for the vast majority, or at the least a belief in a higher power of some kind, and that belief was not a bad thing if it brought about morality.

Poll

73 votes Show Results

greatest moral threat to us as people

73 votes Vote Now!

greatest moral threat to us as people

environmental destruction

20 votes

War

10 votes

poverty

16 votes

Gay marriage

1 vote

abortion

0 votes

fundamentalism

10 votes

lazyness

6 votes

terrorism

0 votes

waxing-philosophic college students who need to get back to writing term papers.

10 votes

The (dung) Beatles

pegleghippie

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Friday November 17, 2006 · 4:02 PM PST

2006/11/17 · 16:02

It Just came out that Rove may be leaving the White House. ( This on the heels of Rumsfeld's Retirement, and I'm staring at the disintegration of what seemed to be four peas in a pod, birds of a feather, bffs, if you will.

(sorry i dont know how to link things. The Rove Story is here http://www.dailykos.com/...) Read More

Some Clarity on Fascism

pegleghippie

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Saturday October 14, 2006 · 11:39 AM PDT

2006/10/14 · 11:39

The word fascism has been thrown around a lot recently--by the current administration in describing terrorists, and, to a less extent, liberals; and by the left in describing, well, every action the Bush administration has engaged in. From what I know of fascism, neither side seems to be using the term correctly, although the way the left uses it seems much closer to examples of how fascism appeared in the past. But then, the other day, I ran into a quote from the godfather of fascism, old Mussolini himself:

[blockquote]Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism, as it is a merge of state and corporate power.
-Benito Mussolini[blockquote] Read More

RSS

A note about altruism

Quantifying Rationality

In Memoriam: Donovan Barks

Waterboard the Candidates

pegleghippie-ism, or, way too many semantics

My first protest

Fundie president calls me clueless

Checking my 'blindspots'

I'm right and I can prove it

The (dung) Beatles

Some Clarity on Fascism