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Which is more important, to do right or to do good?
A rich man walks down the street and drop a 20 dollar bill. You know he will not even notice it is gone. On the side of the street sits a beggar who looks really hungry. The good thing is to give the money to the beggar, the right thing is to give it back to the man who dropped it.
- Maybe instead of taking this question , as a question of right and wrong or judgment, perhaps what we can take from this is that there are a variety of opinions and many people have different ideas of what is morally right. That is beautiful to me. This is just an example that good and right are almost undefinable, or at the least the definition is always changing for everyone.
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John Smith 30+
People who answer "do right" believe that, IN GENERAL, in the long run doing right at this instant does more good than doing good in this instant. Everyone is trying to maximize long term good doing, people just differ in opinion about how to achieve that goal, this is why people's actual behavior differs from situation to situation (not every situation fits the "in general" moniker).
Mark Meijer 100+
Yeah right. Let's be honest for just a second. Someone might pick up the money, or leave it on the ground and pretend not to see it. They might give it to the beggar, they might give it to the rich guy, or they might keep it for themselves. But "everyone" does not ask themselves profound questions about the long term good before they decide what to do.
For the most part they just go with whatever strikes their fancy in the moment, at best they'll make up some kind of post-rationalization for their otherwise baseless "choice" in order to sell it to themselves, and all of it will be over and forgotten before too long because they'll be in a hurry to get to work, or to get home, or to get out of the rain. To get away to wherever. Because that's what we do.
"Everyone" can hardly be bothered about it if you care to honestly observe the reality of it. Except maybe as a mildly entertaining armchair discussion in order to convince ourselves and eachother that we are all good, rational, respectable people, whatever that means. To polish up our own badges for everyone else to see. Boy do we love to share those.
John Smith 30+
Mark Meijer 100+
What tends to be overlooked is that what we think about anything, the ideas that we like to bathe in about the way we think things are, or the way we think we'd like them to be, those ideas don't often have much if anything in common with what we're actually doing. But we're so tied up in our thoughts that we don't even notice it. That's the only reason why we can all post this page full of BS comments with a straight face, and actually believe it too. Someone here said he would take the beggar out for a meal. Tell me honestly, what do you make of that?
We all like to think these things about ourselves because it makes us feel good about ourselves. It's what keeps the whole facade going. But it's a facade nonetheless, and nobody really seems to want to admit it. It's more likely to be deemed offensive to even suggest it. And that too is just another strategy to keep ourselves occupied and distracted from the fact that it's all hollow, meaningless rhetoric. We are each our own used car salesman, and we just love it.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
What I do does not depend on what someone else dropped. To me the two things are disconnected.
Mark Meijer 100+
It's just way too easy to get caught up in our own fanciful stories and get completely disconnected from reality. Everyone tends to walk around with their own fantasy bubble around their heads. That's simply what the mind does, we don't do it on purpose. But it certainly helps to question our own little virtual world of thoughts and take a look at the reality of it. Here's an appropriate Alan Watts quote that I like a lot:
"The ability to think has gone to our heads. And we have to go out of our minds to come to our senses."
Fritzie Reisner 100+
I also understand that some people are more armchair and some more action and that that balance can change over the course of a person's lifetime for a variety of reasons.
I have not come to a settled conclusion as to whether we are each more or less consistent in our actual behaviors than we think we are.
Mark Meijer 100+
All I'm doing is pointing out that there's a huge difference between what we think and what is, and I'm doing that simply because that's so often the one thing that seems to continuously escape our awareness. This is not a lesson in morality (or in a way maybe it is - about the reality of morality)... What I mean is, I'm not saying we should all return the rich man's money and take the beggar out for a meal. I don't give a hoot about those kinds of details.
I'm simply saying we might want to examine our motivations for saying it and thinking it and believing it, when it's just not true. Because if you ask me, that's where all the trouble starts anyway. Someone else here commented about hypocrisy and vanity. That's what I'm talking about.
We are constantly subconsciously kidding ourselves, in denial about what really drives us, and in denial about being in denial. I'd say the first step to solving any problems is to recognize that fact, and to stop doing it, if indeed that's what we want (to each their own, right?). Subconscious means we're generally not immediately aware of it, but it doesn't mean that it's hidden from view if we'd just care to take an honest look at ourselves. And who knows, maybe that is also the last step to solving any problems.
I don't claim to have any answers, but if I were forced to suggest any remedy to any problem at all that goes straight to the root, then that would be it. I honestly don't see any problems that can't be traced back to that one simple, seemingly harmless and totally unnecessary little thing.