Thursday, October 15, 2009

Runaway Ambitions

“Some things are better than others. We should have preferences that lead us into one future over another. But when those preferences drive us too hard or too fast because we have over estimated the difference between these futures we are at risk… When our ambition is unbounded it leads us to lie to cheat to steal to hurt others…” –Dan Gilbert

This is not encouraging us in any way to aim low in life. Rather it is teaching us to bridal our passions.

Consequentialism would have one believe that the ends always justify the means. In reality when one sees the gross acts of people involved in things like the holocaust or the extermination of the American Indian, realizing that the men orchestrating and executing these atrocities really did believe that the ends would be preferable, one can see those ends did not justify the means.

Adam Smith stated that ambition unchecked will lead to, “remorse for the horror of our own injustice,” in pursuit of the thing.

Acts like the aforementioned undoubtedly cause me to lean more toward a utilitarian way of thinking. When shooting for lofty goals one should not only ask if the ends be good for the individual but if the ends be good for the whole of the population. If the ends will decrease the suffering of the majority then the goal is a worthwhile pursuit.

A bridal puts pressure on the corners of a horses mouth causing the horse to obey the riders commands. Passions when left unchecked are the unbridled horse - powerful, driven, and dangerous to the rider and those close by. As I clearly stated in the paragraph above men with unchecked ambition have and will lie, cheat, steal, kill and commit genocide to achieve the object of their ambition. If the goal calls for the suffering of others to increase, the goal should be abandoned.

Suffering is caused by desire. [our economy is driven by desire]
If one can eliminate desire one can eliminate suffering.
- Buddhism

Bridal all your passions, that ye may be filled with love.
- Christianity

Both ideas support what has been stated. Wish I knew a better Christian reference to stand as strong as the Buddhist one… I am frustrated when Christianity falls short of my expectations. I am comforted only by the words, “If there is anything virtues, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy we seek after these things,” allowing for other good ideas to be adopted by the Christian who remains tolerant.

Once again this does not mean one should not set their aims high, if one feels it is ones moral obligation to use ones talents to do an ambitious work that will alleviate some of the worlds suffering.

And watch the video you lazy buggers!

10 comments:

Marie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marie said...

I really like this post, Jack. It's actually something that's been on my mind lately... It reminded me of a talk I read from Gordon B. Hinckley called "The Search For Peace and Freedom"... (http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=c1f427cd3f37b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD)

He says "Can there be peace in the heart of any person, can there be freedom in the life of one who has been left only misery as the bitter fruit of indulgence?
Can anything be more false or dishonest than gratification of passion without acceptance of responsibility?"

“My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure.” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Sir Galahad.”)

JackD said...

I wonder who deleted their comment....?

@Marie
Did you watch the video?!

Marie said...

Wasn't me!... okay it was! haha! I posted the same thing twice...

Yeah, I watched the video. :) Where'd you find it?

Jon said...

I found the video on ted.org . there are a bunch of interesting videos there.

Marie said...

I have to admit, I didn't know that the human brain had developed that much! Kind of scary to almost thing about... I know, doesn't really have anything to do with happiness, but it sure makes me happy knowing I can PLAN AHEAD!!

Marie said...

geez - I can't spell! sorry. I meant "think" not "thing"... *(stupid spell check, you're running my life!)*

udell said...

part 1

okay, as a really late response to most of the religious posts, i have an interjection. i'm not going to pretend to be educated in philosophy and to have just stumbled across this in my elaborate quest for understanding. so, david hume wrote "an enquiry concerning human understanding" and within focuses on miracles.

many of his ideas have been kicking around in my head but not fully developed and as well structured as his but... we receive miracles from the testimony of other. as such, we should treat them as second hand and be critical of them. when we analyze things we use evidence to prove them. when we have evidence for two sides we use the dominating one. when miracles are inserted into this we find the two sides being the testimony of witnesses vs the laws of nature. both sides are founded in experience. for miracles to be the victor they must have the testimony more dominating then the contradiction of the laws of nature. he then gives four reasons for not believing.

1 there are not enough people of trust that support the testimony to prove it true. 2 man is infatuated with wonder and mystery and has the tendency to reject the consistent history for gratification. 3 those who believe and perpetuate miracle are of ignorant consciences. and my favorite 4 anyone of one faith rejects other faiths miracles because of their opposition in theology. therefore miracles disprove miracles.

keep in mind this is just a regurgitation so i might be missing pivotal premisses. in response to these i am of experience to agree with hume. while serving a 2 year mission in canada i developed some rough versions of these concepts. jackD has some very intriguing ideas on this concept as well. I ran into people almost every day that would tell me they were of a certain faith and that they had seen an angle or god had spoken to them. i have recently decided that i won't believe something until i can reproduce the experience myself. that's obviously flawed but i use variance depending on the circumstances. there is way too much to get into about this article but i do want to quote a section.

udell said...

part 2

"With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of travellers received, their descriptions of sea and land monsters, their relations of wonderful adventures, strange men, and uncouth manners? But if the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder, there is an end of common sense; and human testimony, in these circumstances, loses all pretensions to authority. A religionist may be an enthusiast, and imagine he sees what has no reality: he may know his narrative to be false, and yet persevere in it, with the best intentions in the world, for the sake of promoting so holy a cause: or even where this delusion has not place, vanity, excited by so strong a temptation, operates on him more powerfully than on the rest of mankind in any other circumstances; and self-interest with equal force. His auditors may not have, and commonly have not, sufficient judgement to canvass his evidence: what judgement they have, they renounce by principle, in these sublime and mysterious subjects: or if they were ever so willing to employ it, passion and a heated imagination disturb the regularity of its operations. Their credulity increases his impudence: and his impudence overpowers their credulity."

i often wonder as to what promotes religionist to believe and preach what they do. for my personal experience of full dedication to christianity for two years, after being on the fence my entire life previous, and not getting one portion of evidence following. don't misunderstand. i'm approaching the theology and general "truth" of any religion. as i read this the only thing that was going through my head is the leaders of the mormon church.

so i thought about the extraction, which is available online legally free, and realized this can be a criticism of man made religion . religion is the belief in the unnatural. man tends to need to explain the unknown. man also tends to enjoy the gratification of embellishing ideas. as hume closes he mentions that he believes as man becomes more sophisticated we will move on beyond these primitive ideals and realize the logic and experience are the only trustworthy beliefs.

"Hume asserts that no testimony can ever count as a probability, let alone a proof, of the existence of miracles. All testimony in favor of miracles is based in experience, and this same experience opposes this testimony with contrary testimony and with the laws of nature. While God may be all-powerful and could contradict the laws of nature, we cannot ascribe any attributes or actions to him except for those that experience teaches us."-sparknotes (too much to care to summarize myself)

if nature hasn't done it, god hasn't willed it, and man never experienced it.

udell said...

aaand these have nothing to do with the video but i did watch it. i like the idea of without a choice we'll enjoy what we have more. i'm going to start making choices and then pretend there was no choice to begin with. i truthfully remember going through this as a kid when choosing a candy bar at the gas station. it happened every time.