B- Must try harder.

I would not have it any other way, BUT, I agree with your point. :wave:


Always was a B average student.

Relatively speaking I would give us an F. We have so much potential, but it is all wasted on internal strife and hatred towards one and other.

Granted, there have been great advancements in our technology and standard of living, but those resources aren't given to everybody because of said strife and hatred. I'd call that a big fat F.


As to this story, good stuff. It is Make a Wish Foundation, the donors full well acknowledge that they are giving money to make a wish for a dying child, most likely in the US. As Atterbus said, if this was a different charity focusing on Africa Relief, then there would be a problem.

"This is the best day of my life."

*tear*


"I wanna be a LUCARIO!!!"
"That's great, kid, but we keep telling you that's impossible. Do you have any other wishes?"
"LUCARIO!! LUCARIO!!"

Sadly, hatred and internal strife will never disappear. I wonder if humanity will end up destroying itself or if nature will do it.

It can disappear. I think it will just take a LONG time to do so. It remains to be seen whether or not we will make it that long.

Like so many have said, no one is forced to contribute to Make-A-Wish. The foundation is not using our tax dollars. Just about any money spent by anyone on most things could be "better spent" ...

Just an anecdote to add.
One of my nieces suffered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewing%27s_sarcoma when she was 13. Repeated bouts of extremely painful chemotherapy with the predictable side-effects actually led to her quite unexpected physical recovery. (She did however further suffer from kids at school constantly mocking her for being bald or fat or whatever.) Make-A-Wish allowed her to take a trip to scuba-dive and see sharks up close -- her childhood dream.

She has been cancer-free for over 10 years. She graduated from college and is now a police officer in Michigan and a member of the police scuba-diving and rescue team.

This is not to say that everything has been rosy for her since recovering from the disease. Fear of the disease recurring constantly weighs on her mind.

Since her ordeal, my brother-in-law has worked very hard and totally gratis for a charitable organization that contributes to Make-A-Wish, also donating his time and money to helping families who are going through what his family did. He is not wealthy -- works long hours in a foundry.

Just to say, there's no telling what unexpected returns an investment like Make-A-Wish might yield over and above the brief respite a child might have from the ordeal of dying.

But that is human nature for the most part and something inside ourselves drives us to do so subconsciously, or else we would have realized killing=bad from the start. While some may disagree, it is human nature that drives us to do anything even if you dont know you are thinking what you are really thinking about without your own knowledge of it. :bonk: So we deserve no grade, I think there is as much good as there is bad in this world, some people just prefer to focus on bad while others focus on the good. I try to open my eyes to both and realize its all just one big gray area where neither is dominating the other.

I don't think so.

If we had something that subconsciously made us want to kill, then everyone would be a killer, don't ya think?

We have the capability to fight these instincts, or our "nature." It's called using our brains.

Unfortunately, a majority of our population on this planet has not learned to exercise this muscle. Until the time comes when we all actually THINK, then we all deserve an F. If you are not putting that gift you have up in your head to use, you deserve an F.

I'm not talking about using your brains for menial things such as doing good in school or working at some job. I'm talking about putting our brains to use in fighting feelings just as greed, or jealously, or hatred. We can use our mental capacity to cure all disease, famine and poverty. We can use our brains to give everyone the same level of technology, and the same standards of living. Yet we don't. We continue on a down ward spiral that is leading to our demise. Everyday we become more fractured, polarized. Everyday people are learning to hate one and other for various new reasons. Everything is conditioned towards this. The news. Politics. Everything. We are a hateful species because we chose to be. That's what I believe.

That's not some subconscious thing. It is gross misuse of arguably the most valuable gift anyone can ever receive.

Yes well, going on a mission trip to Ethiopia seeing starving children and advlts kinda gives you that same "guilt trip" when you know such few people are doing anything about it. Im not saying helping this child isn't good or anything, its great to give him a dream-come-true, but the people that I saw didnt have the decency of clean water, a steady supply of food, and some couldn't afford clothes for their young. They dont get many wishes there is my point. A bottle of purified water is like winning the lotto over there, regardless of what people do with their money I would think saving lives is more fulfilling than helping one life. This is an extremely bad anology but if someone spends their money on drugs does that mean its right? Again, thats a poor anology and what I said and what make a wish did are nothing alike, but the point is to be taken, what Make A Wish did was great and extremely thoughtful, but im more in favor of helping a great many people rather than just one.

Our experiences make us. Simple. All of what you do is greatly affected by your past experiences, every little thing shapes who you are. I think we have free will to a point, but not entirely. I say that we shouldn't look at what direction we are heading in to judge ourselves, but rather what we have already accomplished to judge ourselves. Some people become more hateful, more idiotic and all these other bad traits, but look at what we have done and all the good that has been and what good there still is. "Despite everything that has happened, I still believe everyone has good in them."-Anne Frank. Take her as an example, everything she went through and she still saw good in everyone. Now im not your "happy go lucky" optimist, but I think its good for yourself to be able to see the good in this world. We have proven to ourselves throughout the past that we are not some race of idiotic, bloodthirsty barbarians. I mean, we have discovered a new world no one knew of, we learned to harness electricity, we have taken to the skies, we have harnessed the power of an atom... hell... we did the impossible, we made it into the black abyss we know as space and whats next? Who can tell, but if anyone can do anything its humans for sure. "The only thing between you and your dreams is what other people say about it." Humanity is great.

Like I said before, if there is a but after your "how nice" comment, then the comment smells just like what I spread over my flower bed in the Spring. :shrug:

You think it hasn't?

Consider, for a moment, the philosophical ramifications. For one day, people came together to help one child. Think about the message that sends. Sure, every day, atrocities happen, but as messed up as we are, we can grant a dying kid his wish, even if it's something as elaborate as, I dunno, stopping traffic and rigging a jumbotron.

The world stopped for one kid. That will make people take pause.

If you could measure the sheer amount of inspiration that this event could bring to people-- people who might decide to make a difference-- maybe it was worth it. Maybe people might want to make the lives of other kids worth it.

Either way, this made my freaking day.

Which, I might add, provides nutrients normally unavailable with regular rainfall and non recycling / composting plant matter. Despite the smell there is some benefit.

Yes, my flower bed is the only thing that benefits here.

I am sorry.
That was entirely to sarcastic for me to let it lay.

I need some sleep.

I have cow fields on all 3 sides of my property, im used to it, that smell is what I call "the smell of success".

Yes, BS does have it's uses, if used properly. However it can BURN if used in an improper way.

agreed.

:blush:

No snarking here. It's called a discussion about ethics. Granted, being involved in philosophy I'm talking about such things and writing about them every day of my life, so I'm just doing what I normally do. EVERYTHING is open to critical anolysis, and if someone makes a logical error, you point it out. Simple. Pointing out a logical error is not a personal attack. It's got nothing to do with 'thinking you are better than other people', that's nonsense. It's called doing ethics, or it's called anolyzing theories. It's NOT something personal, it's not 'trying to be better' than anyone else, and it has nothing to do with 'snarking'. The only one snarking here is you, because you're trying really hard to find something to snark about. You're also the only one here making personal attacks. Give it a rest.

In any case, yes, if you want to be maximally ethical from a utilitarian perspective, you would not choose to donate to the Make A Wish foundation - you'd choose some other charity. This is both the more logical and more ethical choice for a utilitarian-minded donor. And yes, doing otherwise would be a logical error. And as a disclaimer for anyone who doesn't get the obvious - no, this statement does not mean I hate the Make a Wish foundation, does not mean I think I'm better than the donors, and does not mean I object to helping a poor little kid. :rolleyes:

I'm going to side with Yiasemi here. Humanity's GPA should be a 3.0. Honestly, we've got some real shining talent, but not enough motivation. Beyond that, we still cling on to our infantile hobbies (mass murder, for instance. Yup, I'm just gonna come out and say it. Mass murder is a hobby of humanity's). Despite this, we do, as students, spend our time applying ourselves to positive hobbies as well (point in case, stuff like this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug that saved more lives than Hitler ever took-- a hundred times over). I'm pretty sure Mr. Borlaug increased our GPA as a species by a whole point with his massive achievement.

People choose to donate their extra, and sometimes not extra, but needed funds, to a charity of their choice. Charity is helping and caring about someone other than yourself. For someone to come along and try to make moral judgements on someone elses charity is not only illogical, it's arrogant and rude. :rolleyes:

Dude, Gross.



:foodndrink:


Humanity is around A-

However, the general population is at D+


I loved this story and still do. It's such a nice sentiment to have so many people give up their day to make his the best he could hope for. After seeing countless family members battle with cancer, and my step sister battle with (and survive) meningitis as a child I couldnt care less what the money could have gone on Instead, when some one is facing their darkest hour theres absolutely nothing wrong with pulling out the stops to give them a bit of light -- I just wish there where more oppertunities and charities like these, a little positive direction in some one's life can help turn the fight around in some cases.

Again, it's called doing ethics. Not passing judgement on people. Is everyone sitting anolyzing ethical issues in a classroom being arrogant and rude? It's not a personal thing - stop trying to personalize it.

The only people causing problems in this thread are those who don't seem able to anolyze such situations from an emotionally detached perspective. The fact remains that deciding to donate to this charity would seem to not be the most logical and ethical option for the utilitarian-minded. That's my proposal, and the proposal of several other people, and I haven't seen anybody try to actually refute it yet.

And in making it, my mind is getting filled with thoughts and ideas about ethical theory and and interesting paradoxes and conundrums. "What an interesting ethical dilemma!", I think. "What's the best solution? It seems to be this one!" However, thoughts like "I want to make moral judgement on these dumb people!" or 'these people are stoopid!!" or any other personalized thoughts haven't even entered my brain. I'm starting to get really annoyed and offended that people keep making out like that's the way it is, and saying that there's an ulterior motive of rudeness, snarkyness, trying to be better than others, personal attacks, or whatever else. I'm not doing that, I haven't seen anyone else doing that, and I'm getting pretty sick of being accused of it.

I have two things to say about the way this thread has gone. I'm going to speak both as a moderator and as an interested member.

As a moderator, I can't let the personal attacks that have been occurring in this thread go on. Some posts are going away, and some members are going to have to cool off. I can hand out suspensions to make sure that happens. I don't think too many of you would like that, so post decently and in order or keep silence.

Speaking just as a member, I don't agree with the opinion that this is a charity that's somehow less worthy than others or that's wasting resources that could be put to better use.

You can apportion taxes: questions about what public uses of tax money are most beneficial or efficient are valid questions (though often unsuitable for these forums due to the rule against politics), and most of us would agree that spending public funds on any kind of extravagance when basic needs are unmet is a Bad Thing.

You can't apportion charity. Charities have no obligation to fund exclusively the bottom tier of a Maslovian hierarchy of needs. It is up to the directors and donors of the charity to determine its mission, and that mission does not always need to be providing food and shelter for those who lack it, instead of constructing great works for the benefit of science, or in this case doing extravagant kindnesses to people who have had more than their share of pain and will soon be beyond the reach of kindness.