For the past decade or two, American consumers have enjoyed low prices at Walmart, which imports many of its products from China. Simultaneously, American companies have enjoyed low prices by out-sourcing service jobs to India and manufacturing to China. Americans, both consumers and business leaders, believe they have saved money by doing this. …
Speaking about the lack of hard factual international news reporting by our nation’s major news outlets, Ted Koppell stated the following as part of his speech to the Overseas Press Club (where he received the President's Award): They have almost surrendered even the pretense of civic responsibility. That is not just…
See: http://www.cagle.com/politicalcartoons/PCcartoons/boligan.asp Angel Boligan of the El Universal newspaper in Mexico City just won the World Press Cartoon contest with this cartoon. Wonderful commentary on one of my favorite topics.
Interesting missive, that moral rules, dirty secret, thing. Got me thinking. I am one of those people with too much stuff. I’m also one of those people who would just as soon give money or time to kids on the other side of the world as pay my own bills, but that’s a different problem altogether. Let’s call it a problem with authority, and we’ll just visit that one some other time.
I’m on mission right now to rid my life of stuff. If you entered my house at this point, you’d laugh at how, thus far, I haven’t fared particularly well in this area. Stuff has sort of taken over. None of it is particularly expensive or luxurious stuff, just stuff. I have kids. They like stuff. ‘Nuff said.
In figuring out how to rid our lives of the extraneous junk and the stress it inevitably causes – particularly when it trips me up in the middle of the night causing swear words to wake my children – I’m faced with a choice. Sell it, trash it or donate it.
Trashing some of it is a favor to all involved – junk is a kind word to describe much of the effluvia of childhood. Small plastic things, 40 drawings of essentially the very same flower, more small plastic things, pieces of other things we’re sure we’ll find the rest of eventually, single socks (even a shoe or two) in a house full of bi-peds but surely-the-mates-are-here-somewhere-and-if-I-toss-this-one-I’ll-immediately-find-the-other; hey look, more …
Many people feel that to be moral is to follow a set of rules. But there’s an implicit unwritten preamble to every set of rules or commandments: they don’t apply equally to everyone.
Consider “Do not injure or kill other people,” for example. Assume that two people have fallen off a ship and you’ve only got one lifesaver. One of the people is a stranger and the other is your mother. Should you consider throwing the lifesaver to the stranger instead of your mother? Most people would say no.
A second example: you might voluntarily put your life in danger to save members of your immediate family, but most of us wouldn’t offer our extra kidneys to people we’ve never met. We walk around simply assuming that having an extra kidney (when someone else desperately needs one) is not a moral act.
Here’s a third example: You have $100. You want to spend it on a fancy dinner for yourself and your significant other. You are aware that if you sent that same $100 to your favorite African relief association you could save the lives of two starving people. Are you allowed to spend the money on the fancy dinner knowing that doing so will condemn two people to certain deaths? Most people would say yes. The same dollars that could be used to save human lives can also buy jewelry, souped-up car stereos and expensive tickets to sports events. If you ever bring up this undeniable fact to a …