PyramidHead
Contributor
In a thread about humanism, another poster and I agreed that treating people as if they were objectively valuable can be dangerous. This goes against the conventional wisdom that states the opposite: without assigning some kind of inherent worth to each individual, we fall into a territory where anything goes. Many people believe that the only way to live ethically is to affirm the unshakeable value of life, human life specifically. I don't think this is necessarily the case, and on the contrary, a lot of the havoc that happens in the world may be traceable to that absolutist notion.
The plain fact is that nothing is valuable in itself, and instrumental values depend on subjective preferences. But this isn't a potent motivator toward action, for most people who realize it. Given the empty and ultimately meaningless futility of everything, a nihilist is unlikely to rush into a crowded building and start stabbing people, because that too will have been drained of its significance. Rather, it's the people who feel like they have to protect something sacred and immutable who are spurned into every kind of mayhem by their values. The average person will feel sympathy with such defenders, and think "at least they have principles and are willing to fight for them." Fighting for principles is delusional and destructive, always reactionary, and not something my subjective preferences allow me to admire.
When it really sinks in that I am one among billions dragging myself across the surface of the planet and nothing good is guaranteed to happen to me, I lose the ability to have enemies. When I think of how every act I take to improve my well-being is necessarily at the expense of someone else, I am provided with no positive reason to further sabotage the plans of others. When the hollowness of whatever I work hard to obtain is laid bare, I can share it more freely. When I realize the many ways everybody is doomed to struggle and be forgotten, I naturally avoid perpetuating another generation of suffering. If I thought that I was a special being, and people who had the same ideas as me were similarly special, I might vilify those who disagreed with me. If I believed there was a proper way to behave in all circumstances, grounded in a consistent set of ethical norms, I would spend time diverting the trajectories of other people. In every case, I find that it's the moralist with deep convictions who makes a mess of the world. The more cemented their foundation, the more pernicious the mischief they cause wherever they go.
I really don't have a question or an argument here, I just wanted to share my point of view. It's kind of like Buddhism I guess, only with no possibility of enlightenment.
The plain fact is that nothing is valuable in itself, and instrumental values depend on subjective preferences. But this isn't a potent motivator toward action, for most people who realize it. Given the empty and ultimately meaningless futility of everything, a nihilist is unlikely to rush into a crowded building and start stabbing people, because that too will have been drained of its significance. Rather, it's the people who feel like they have to protect something sacred and immutable who are spurned into every kind of mayhem by their values. The average person will feel sympathy with such defenders, and think "at least they have principles and are willing to fight for them." Fighting for principles is delusional and destructive, always reactionary, and not something my subjective preferences allow me to admire.
When it really sinks in that I am one among billions dragging myself across the surface of the planet and nothing good is guaranteed to happen to me, I lose the ability to have enemies. When I think of how every act I take to improve my well-being is necessarily at the expense of someone else, I am provided with no positive reason to further sabotage the plans of others. When the hollowness of whatever I work hard to obtain is laid bare, I can share it more freely. When I realize the many ways everybody is doomed to struggle and be forgotten, I naturally avoid perpetuating another generation of suffering. If I thought that I was a special being, and people who had the same ideas as me were similarly special, I might vilify those who disagreed with me. If I believed there was a proper way to behave in all circumstances, grounded in a consistent set of ethical norms, I would spend time diverting the trajectories of other people. In every case, I find that it's the moralist with deep convictions who makes a mess of the world. The more cemented their foundation, the more pernicious the mischief they cause wherever they go.
I really don't have a question or an argument here, I just wanted to share my point of view. It's kind of like Buddhism I guess, only with no possibility of enlightenment.