I am under the impression that the only thing that matters to me in my life is happiness. Consciousness is the only thing I have and my love for other people and everything else exists only in my consciousness. Happiness is the state of best feeling within my consciousness. Therefore to me my consciousness and my happiness is all that matters.
If I were to get a rare form of disease and I was told by doctors that the best chance for me to survive would be take the entire population of Sweden and run experiments on them to find a cure. I would say Yes…run the experiments on the population of Sweden. My desire for the people of Swedens well being lies within my consciousness. If I were to die then so would my desire for there well being.
If 10,000 dollars were put on a table and I had the choice of either taking the 10 grand or giving it to a charity I would take the 10 grand.
I could even take this as far as saying If i were given the choice of everyone in the world dying or me . I could say I would rather have everyone in the world die. Of course, I doubt I could live very long by myself and I doubt I would be sane knowing the decision I had just made. But I would inleast give it a shot. I could always kill myself if needed.
Now I realize that if everyone acted the same way that I did the world would be in trouble. But I don’t care how anyone else acts. I am not hear to be a model citizen, to act in such a way in which I wish everyone would act. I am here to live the happiest life possible. And that is my ultimate goal. Not the well being of society.
If everyone thought it was ok to sacrifice others to themselves then we would all perish. Thus your point of view could not survive.
We benefit from the best of our species in fact in a lot of ways we leach off them. It is illogical to allow ourselves to feed off each other to the point of extinction.
I admitted that. I know that if everyone acted the way I would act the human race would fail. But since I am the only one acting that way(not everyone) why should I put society’s well being in front of my own happiness. Keep in mind, I am the only one acting this way, and how I act isn’t going to represent how everyone acts.
I am not saying that you would need to place society ahead of your own happiness. Sacrificing yourself to others leads in the exact direction as sacrificing them to yourself.
My point is your happiness “depends†on neither of the above happening. In other words living without enslaving anyone nor being enslaved.
If you were the “only†one sacrificing others to yourself you would be in constant danger of being stopped. Even as a pure act of self defense you could be brought to an early retirement. Thus sacrificing others to yourself would not be in your best interest. Happiness would first require survival.
I don’t think I will ever face the possibility of me dying versus the entire population of the world. I just used that as an analogy to help show the I care about my personal happiness more than that of society or all other people combined.
The important aspect of your point of view is WHY? Rather than justifying this innate feeling we must understand it is the ONLY logical way to live. We place our own happiness first because we must, we are “individuals†We exist as separate beings & must first take care of our selves before we can offer anything of worth to others. It is an impossible hierarchy to escape.
what is right and wrong anyway and who am i to judge? i might not agree wholly your philosophy but i applaude you for being honest with yourself. you have every right to ensure your survival even if the means are somewhat ruthless. darwinism anyway… yes you’re egocentric, but arent we all? everyone’s different so obviously not everyone would think like you (thankfully?)
that you would put your well being before others is understandable.
question: the points you listed were in situations where you would face a loss. would you consider the welfare of others if you wouldnt suffer any loss at all?
“question: the points you listed were in situations where you would face a loss. would you consider the welfare of others if you wouldnt suffer any loss at all?”
Hmm. … think of a situation where this would occur and I’ll tell you.
i cant tell that you are wrong. right or wrong are actually just a point of view.
Now, happiness is the biggest utopy that humans have created. But, if you cant be happy, you have at least, the right to have fun and ENJOY YOURSELF. If being selfish and mean to other ppl makes you ‘happy’, go ahead, but you’ll have to deal with loneliness. you can also be thoughtful and selfishless, then you’ll have to deal with a bunch of freakin humans around you, telling you ‘oh yer so nice’.
this is certainly the strangest life ive ever known. i just know that everthing has a price.
am i wrong ?
i dunno, and u dont know either. theres no other choice, we gotta keep breathing.
this world is a prison, just find the middle point between pain and boredom. in the end of the day, you are alone with yerself, beyond yer kindness or unkindness. beyond applause or censorment (is that a word ? ).
deal with yerself. thats it.
Yes but much of a person’s happiness is derived from the relationships between them and the people around them.
Without other people, you couldn’t have sex, you wouldn’t be able to love or be loved, you wouldn’t be able to receive compliments or have people look up to you. So if they all died because of you, and you continued to live…you would probably end up living an unhappy life. And everybody eventually dies…so your death would be miserable.
However if you sacrificed your life for other people, they would be grateful and would love you…and you would die happy.
So actually by deliberately trying to be happy you choose misery and, by being selfless and sacrificing yourself, you would be choosing happiness.