Oh, also Richard. I don't think there is anything wrong with using guilt to cause people to give to charity.
I think people SHOULD feel guilty.
I don't know how normal people in the west live there lives and don't feel guilty about how good their lives are in comparison to people in other countries.
Hell, I don't know how I don't feel more guilty. I do more for chairty then most.
I'd like to say I wish I did more, but if I did... I'd clearly be doing more.
I'd argue however there has been significant progress towards doing more in human history. We've moved away from the selfishness of animals more and more.
Ironically though i'd argue too much of a collective focus on charity might dull the indivduals view on charity... which may or may not lead to overall negative consequences and a step away from true collectiveness as was hoped for by Marx.
I will say that conservatives are much more receptive of guilt in people's thinking than liberals. With this whole self-esteem non-sense teaching go about, no one is ever supposed to feel bad about themselves. This teaching has produced a generation or more of people who think they are special, and want to feel good all the time. With this has been a decline in test scores, and an increased criminal activity by youth. What is needed is more guilt about, for people to think about what is going on, and say things are not ok, and THEY personally need to change. Looking at the man in the mirror and asking him to change would be a good thing. Often times, guilt does this (now not saying the guilt should remain forever, but long enough to affect the change (some shame would help also):
I don't know... I mean, I can spend all day goofing off on the internet argueing politics. While some 8 year old in Somalia has to carry an automatic rifle and dodge gunfire just to get to a well to get polluted dirty water so he can avoid dying of dehydration.
I'd say people should feel permanently guilty about such things.
Ideally people in general in the west would try and live completely like "monks" and dedicate their money towards fixing other parts in the world. Outside a few issues like the military which would sadly be needed to avoid invasion.
Not at all realistic... but even the slightest bit of time or money spent on pleasure or recreation seems like a "sin" when people are suffering like that.
Then again, I have what i'd imagine is a peculiar world philosphy
Faced with situations where, intentionally or unintentionally, people are put in places where they feel they are powerless to help. So, rather than have extreme guilt go off, there is rationalizing, thinking people in dire situations actually deserve to be there, or think that individuals who have extreme good luck deserved that also. It makes life more manageable. There is also collective perceptions societies do, in order to make it so that excessive guilt doesn't happen, and can be done to justify collective behaviors, because to do different is seen as way too costly for people. People will then also latch on to deterministic ideologies believing it will just work out in the end. The train goes off the rails and people ignore it. Theologically there is talk of not only sins of commission, but also omission. Even in this, I think of forgiveness Sunday at where I go where everyone in the congregation asks everyone else for forgivess. I find I am not able to get fully through it and then wonder what i did wrong, and think deeper that, if you having wronged someone in any way, you probably don't know them well enough, and that also is wrong. No, you can't, but maybe the idea is to play the game better, rather than win. I also sit on the other side, where I am slipping between the cracks and no one seems to have answers either. I mean NO ONE. I hold out hope I can turn it around, but don't see where. I do game design for my life, because I feel I have to.
Perhaps. I tend to think it goes the otherway though. People feel they are powerless to help BECAUSE they are rationalizing.
