Asking for a Friend: How to be a Less Shitty Person (Part 1)

Today’s Daily Prompt is Fact.

This is a sort of follow-up to my “debriefing” article that I posted on my blog on Monday.

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How well do you know yourself?

Why do you do what you do? Do you know why you make the choices that you do? Could you reveal any facts about your decisions, thoughts, feelings, or actions?

Petter Johansson doesn’t believe so:

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What’s the principle reason?

Is it possible that we can make better choices, or dare I say, real choices, if we make them based on our principles?

What tenets guide your life? What commandments? What laws? If these are the things that allow us true choice, do we know why?

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What makes a virtuous principle?

To me, a virtuous principle is based on fact.

For instance, killing is wrong. Murder is bad. It hurts people. It ends their lives. It brings grief and pain to friends and family.

What about doctor-assisted suicide? The question becomes more complicated. However, if it is in your moral compass that murder is wrong but suicide, for some reason, isn’t, then you would likely say “murder is wrong, but doctor-assisted suicide is fair.”

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For me the highest virtue is patience.

That’s why I’ll take more time to suss this out.

I leave you with this:

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“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

4 thoughts on “Asking for a Friend: How to be a Less Shitty Person (Part 1)

  1. “To me, a virtuous principle is based on fact.

    For instance, killing is wrong. Murder is bad. It hurts people. It ends their lives. It brings grief and pain to friends and family.”

    Killing is wrong or only killing of humans is wrong?

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    • No, but I thought I made it clear that patience was definitely a part of my philosophy, or at least my pinnacle virtue. Since I have now found the time, I hope that you find the patience now to read this. I know that I don’t sit behind my computer 24/7 waiting for a comment, and it isn’t yet habitual that I check my emails for them, so I hope that patience finds you well as I attempt to answer your question that I am now finally reading.

      As an end note, I usually get pingback requests, so I’ll glance at comments quickly as I approve them, but they don’t appear well in my email, so I don’t see much of a comment ever. Also, just because you’re commenting, doesn’t necessitate a reply. I only hope to create community as I respond to comments. I especially don’t often speak to rude people, so if someone comes off belligerent I don’t see a point in justifying their behavior with a response, because their attitude or tone may make others feel less capable of commenting as well.

      Thank you for commenting! Now to answer your question:
      I really appreciate your question. And I’m coming to answer it from a place of having been vegan and anti-violence for years. That aside however, I think there’s a clear fact in the killing of nonhumans that we can’t ignore. Sentience, or the ability to feel, means that by killing a nonhuman, we are not only causing pain to the one murdered, but there has been enough research to show that regardless of species most if not all animals or nonhumans will experience some form of grief. This is instinctual as we reflect ourselves upon others, and as do nonhumans, without thought to it regardless of species. If you watch a stabbing, you’ll probably be feeling a sharp pain. It’s our brain training us to stay away from that danger.

      Killing. Killing is wrong. Thank you.

      P.S. – Is it against your philosophy to ask questions as questions? (Picking on you because you forgot a question mark, if you haven’t noticed.) If I had noticed this earlier, I would seem like a less shitty person. If you had noticed that not a lot of people notice things quite immediately, perhaps you too would seem like a less shitty person. Thanks again.

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