Saturday, February 13

Extreme altruism: should you care for strangers at the expense of your family? | Larissa MacFarquhar

This was a difficult read kids. And it raises some really tough questions. So let me get the first question out of the way first. The answer is that I would first care for the family first and then look at strangers. But there's one major difference kids. I think given the work I do, that allows me to look at the issues a bit more easily. Plus what I can do is to devote my time and hours to charities. Unpaid consultancy so to say. That it much better than giving money. I think I can do more and better with my time than with my money. 
For example the work Im doing to keep the home start charity running for the past 5 years. That's 500 families helped in various forms. I do donate £500 to the charity per year. But the biggest contribution is that the charity is running successfully and in a sustainable manner. Big win. Same with the other bits and bobs. 
So where do you go? My suggestion is that you do try to do what you can. And don't talk about it with others. People don't understand charity son. Either they get defensive. Or do something weird like clicking like in Facebook. But hey ho. Everybody has to make peace in their own ways. 
Still that's the best way to be happy. To make somebody else happy kids. And you have to go out of your way to do so. Clicking like doesn't hack it. 
Love
Baba


Extreme altruism: should you care for strangers at the expense of your family? | Larissa MacFarquhar
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/22/extreme-altruism-should-you-care-for-strangers-as-much-as-family
(via Instapaper)

For many years, Julia Wise wondered if she would ever meet another person who thought as she did. Everyone she knew thought her ideas about morality were strange. Some people told her they thought she might be right, but they were not willing to make the sacrifices she made; other people thought her ideas were not only misguided, but actually bad. All this made her worry that she might be wrong. How likely was it that everyone else was wrong and she was right? But she was also suspicious of that worry: after all, it would be quite convenient to be wrong – she would not have to give so much. Although her beliefs seemed to her not only reasonable but clearly true, and she could argue for them in a rational way, they were not entirely the result of conscious thinking: the essential impulse that gave rise to all the rest was simply a part of her. She could not help it; she had always been this way, since she was a child.