Help. I need input from wise sage types here, DU elders would

[texpatriot2004]

be most appreciated but any DU wisdom is gratefully received.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5071605

[Xipe Totec]

1. Read: "The Voter's Paradox"

<<A few nights ago, my wife and I were driving along one of the lesser traveled highways. We came upon a person with a broken down vehicle in obvious distress. My wife said, "Maybe we should help". But I said, "I think not - it is not worth the risk". She responded, "But what if someday you were stranded and needed some help. Wouldn't you want someone to stop?"

Her reasoning is noble and her attitude is just exactly what our society needs. But her logic is faulty.

It is faulty on at least two counts. First off, my wife and I personally had much to lose and little to gain by helping this person. There would likely be time and expense involved to us in getting the stranger's car going again. And, there was some risk in that we could have been harmed by the person. The only practical reward for all this was a possible future gain of being helped in a similar situation.

And that brings us to the second fault; how is the recipient of our compassion going to spread the word to the population that the two of us are compassionate people (so that we might be rewarded someday when we need help)? Of course, it would not happen. Helping this person would have no effect on our chances of ever receiving similar help in this large anonymous society we now live in.

That example illustrates a phenomenon that is ubiquitous to our society. >>

(more...)

http://www.magnolia.net/~leonf/sd/vp-brf.html

[serryjw]

3. I would have at least tried to notify the police

Wouldn't you have felt horrible if the woman was raped or murdered?

[Xipe Totec]

9. I would. That's the Paradox

I have stopped to change a tire on the inside lane of an interstate, in the middle of a deluge, for a woman with two kids. I've been splashed by the oily wake of 18-wheelers whizzing at 75 mph inches away from my feet while doing so. I have kids of my own. I few inches one way or the other and I would have been a cripple, or a dead man. I did not know her, and I do not know now, 20 years later, whether her children grew up to be high school teachers or rapists. But I know one thing; If I had not stopped to help her that day, I would not be able to face myself in the mirror.

Rationally, I know that was a dumb move on my part; risking the well being of my children for a total stranger.

But I had no choice.

That's the paradox.

[texpatriot2004]

10. The paradox being then that you have to do what is right in order

to face yourself even when there is no tangible or immediate payoff?

[Xipe Totec]

14. You have to do what 'feels' right

Because what is rational is not always right, and what is right is not always rational. We do it because, at a fundamental level, that is how we have been programmed to behave by our genes.

It's that funny thing some call a conscience, moral compass, or sense of kinship that humans have evolved as a survival strategy. We are social creatures by nature. We instinctively seek each other for comfort, support, and mutual assistance. Fundamentally, the paradox emerges from living in a social group that is way too large for the individual to handle. The strategy breaks down because there is no longer any connection between a direct action and its beneficiary.

Acts that made sense for a villager in a community of a few hundred make absolutely no sense in a metropolitan setting composed of hundreds of thousands of individuals.

[sandnsea]

15. They make perfect sense

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Individual deeds are what create society. It doesn't matter how large or small the community, it doesn't matter whether it's known or unknown deeds, it doesn't matter whether it's courageous or simply kind. The deeds combine and create a sense of ourselves, who we are and what we value. The true crime of a criminal isn't the personal attack on someone, it's the damage he/she does to that sense of decency and faith in our fellows that we prefer to carry with us. That's why your act was so so important, and what was wrong with the premise presented in the paradox, you sent out a ripple and society cannot exist without them.

[Xipe Totec]

16. The Monarch and the Viceroy

The monarch butterfly evolved a simple strategy for survival: "Eat me, and you will die". Birds learn to recognize the monarch on sight and avoid it after trying to eat just one. The strategy sacrifices one individual for the benefit of the species. The genes are passed on by the survivors and all benefit.

The viceroy's strategy is to mimic the appearance of the monarch. Birds avoid the viceroy too. The viceroy does not waste energy developing defenses like the monarch, so all of its energies are devoted to reproduction. Thus, the viceroy benefits without contributing, and can reproduce quicker than the monarch.

However, the viceroy cannot survive if there are too few monarchs because birds never learn to avoid them; they all get eaten. There is an upper limit to the number of viceroy's that can survive, based on the number of monarchs present.

The question is: Do we have too many viceroys and not enough monarchs in our society?

[texpatriot2004]

18. Good point about the village v. Metro City. I can see what you

mean. "I have examined my conscience and my files..." Edward R. Murrow It's interesting people used to say that and they meant it, they actually did it.

[ewagner]

2. An old friend

now deceased was from Chicago. His name was Big Bill. He grew up in the days of bootleg whiskey, Al Capone, Richard Daly SR., and a lot of other unsavory characters. He grew up as a "bar boy", that is, his dad owned a bar and he cleaned up afterward and sometimes served drinks to political and mob bigwigs. (He had some great stories) When I went into politics he told my dad that he'd rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a son in politics; he hated politicians that much.

Around election time he always saw fit to give me the same lecture, maybe even several times before the election and it went something like this:

You know what I'm going to do after the election tomorrow? No? You don't. Well, let me tell ya. I'm going to get up the same way I did today, I'm going to get dressed the same way I did today and then I'm going to go to work just like I did today. Ya know why? 'Cause NOTHING these assholes do is going to make a difference in my life...or yours or anybody else's

Sometimes I thought he was right. But that didn't stop me from the protest movements, or any kind of activism. I kept doing it.

And I still am.

If there was ever a time when Big Bill was wrong, it is now. Now Bush is setting out to change the order of our individual lives in a way that none of us could have imagined prior to the 2000 election. Hell, we thought the book 1984 was just fiction and now we're f-ing a living it.

It is often said that all that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men (and women) to do nothing. Now, more than ever, if we continue to do nothing, the evil that Bush intends will prevail.

We can't afford the luxury of complacency anymore.

[tnlefty]

4. Very well said, IMHO

And if I may add more to the original poster's question: I will never forget a conversation over dinner when my spouse who keeps stating that 'Americans will never stand for this, they will rise up to fight it' and when repeatedly asked when this might happen the response is always 'When if effects them personally.' My 15 yr. old son told him, "Dad the things that Mom sees, that even I see happening, by the time it effects most people personally, well, it will be too late to stop it."

[texpatriot2004]

5. True. That's what I see too. In fact I asked him tonight, when will

it be bad enough that you would warrant action? (That wasn't exactly how I worded it but that was clearly the question.) How bad does it have to get before you think we need to do something? His answer was, "it would have to get pretty bad." And my response..."by that time you won't be able to escape."

He says, after all I have shared with him about what is going on, that my fears are "irrational." That's a hard blow. In my mind, it means he doesn't believe me and my only hope is for him and others like him to believe me. Again, thank God for DU.

[texpatriot2004]

6. I get that too. We can't afford the luxury of complacency anymore

I really get that. I am not complacent but many, many Americans are. When will they do something?

[walldude]

7. My answer to the "what if it doesn't happen" folks is

"Well what if it does?"

[texpatriot2004]

8. What do they say then? n.t

[DemonFighterLives]

11. I just wanted to be a sage type

What if it never happens? I think the b*sh crime family has enough of a record of evil doing that the chances of bad things happening are very high. It is hard to predict just what will happen and when, but expect the worst with them. People are bullied, bribed or suicided to make them kow tow to the regime. How they can run so silently is beyond me.

My question is; when will the right people wake up that can make a difference? I had big hope for the Cia to protect us until they were purged. I used to trust the Supreme court until dumbya's appointment. I used to trust voting until the last 3 elections. I used to think of the US as a force for good in the world, but now I can't see the good.
Here's hoping that someday we can get back to where we once were. Respectful and respected.
:patriot:

[texpatriot2004]

12. I agree and I too hope that we can get back to being a respected

Nation who respects others.

Dear wise sage type,

I love your paragraph about all the things you used to trust.

Sincerely,
TexPat

[DemonFighterLives]

17. Thank You!

:rofl:

[texpatriot2004]

19. Liked that did you Oh wise one.n.t

[texpatriot2004]

13. kick it for feedback on this n/t

[texpatriot2004]

20. Come on ya'll you know you are wise. n.t