100,000 dead ... and I feel fine


Greybird

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U.S. envoy: Cyclone toll may top 100,000

The situation in cyclone-devastated Myanmar is becoming "more and more horrendous" and the death toll in the nation's delta region alone could top 100,000, said Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar.

This headline, at the moment, tops CNN.com, with its being made to sprawl across two normal "columns," or the rough equivalent on line of what's used in a newspaper.

Seeing this, quite suddenly, provoked something unusual, given my usual news-reading modes of either curiosity, cynicism (when it's politics), generalized benevolence, or any and all of the three. It was revulsion. It almost made me heave up my lunch. Because this is what went through my mind, consciously and without my will:

Why should I have to help pay for repairing every goddamned disaster in every shit-hole on this planet? Why are "my" representatives giving away more of what I earn, taken from me forcibly, to practice such charity? And why don't any other Americans seem to care about that?

You might not think such sentiments to be surprising, when reported in an Objectivist venue. Yet they were, at least to me. I had tuned out such constant altruistic static over most of the last 25 years, after getting out of college, where one is almost susceptible to it by nature — and drowned by it.

It could be that this blatant heart-tug, and my remembering how Bush pandered the other day to the tinhorn murderers who run that cesspool of Asia, shook me out of my cynical accommodation to the ethically debased cultural static. For a while.

If anything, Rand greatly understated the omnipresence of altruism, and of its calling for sacrificial victims. I didn't think so once — I came to see it as almost philosophic hysteria. How wrong I was.

After a few moments, I returned to something resembling emotional peace. I remembered I was in one of the less benighted and tyranny-ridden corners of the planet, especially compared to Myanmar ... which is by no means an excuse for tolerating the tinhorn murderers WE are saddled with in Washington.

Maybe some of my reaping the benefits of this society is an "accident of birth," as other professional altruists like to say. I don't care. It's the end of the world as we know it, quoth R.E.M., due to the bastiches in every land, but I'm in one of the better places to ride out the storms, and I feel fine.

And not at all guilty.

Edited by Greybird
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U.S. envoy: Cyclone toll may top 100,000

The situation in cyclone-devastated Myanmar is becoming "more and more horrendous" and the death toll in the nation's delta region alone could top 100,000, said Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar.

This headline, at the moment, tops CNN.com, with its being made to sprawl across two normal "columns," or the rough equivalent on line of what's used in a newspaper.

Seeing this, quite suddenly, provoked something unusual, given my usual news-reading modes of either curiosity, cynicism (when it's politics), generalized benevolence, or any and all of the three. It was revulsion. It almost made me heave up my lunch. Because this is what went through my mind, consciously and without my will:

Why should I have to help pay for repairing every goddamned disaster in every shit-hole on this planet? Why are "my" representatives giving away more of what I earn, taken from me forcibly, to practice such charity? And why don't any other Americans seem to care about that?

You might not think such sentiments to be surprising, when reported in an Objectivist venue. Yet they were, at least to me. I had tuned out such constant altruistic static over most of the last 25 years, after getting out of college, where one is almost susceptible to it by nature — and drowned by it.

I feel revulsion that 100,000 human beings may have been killed, perhaps in part because of the dictatorship they live under. The entire country is full of the walking dead of stagnant, stunted lives. Exhortations for altuistic responses to me are like rain on a duck. Quack! Quack, quack! Quack!

--Brant

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In my own emotions, I seem to be at peace with this kind of thing. One lesson that has taken root in my soul is to separate the metaphysical from the man-made.

I feel strong empathy for victims of natural disasters (the metaphysical) without a tinge of guilt or revulsion or even the shadow of the word altruism appearing on my mental horizon.

I also feel strong empathy for victims of dictatorships (the man-made), but this is seasoned with contempt for the dictators and things start getting confused. For natural disasters, though, I have no contempt for nature. Just a heartbreaking empathy for the victims.

Michael

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> I feel strong empathy for victims of natural disasters (the metaphysical) without a tinge of guilt or revulsion or even the shadow of the word altruism appearing on my mental horizon.

I'm in agreement with Michael.

The news story was about people dying. That is all.

Not about altruism.

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On a slightly different topic as you all know the world is experiencing a major food shortage, at the same time the Canadian govt ordered the destruction of livestock as we are experiencing over production.

Something tells me that with more food than our overweight society wants here and with far less food than they need to live over there, there is a solution to at least part of the problem.

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The news story was about people dying. That is all. Not about altruism.

You don't get my point. People dying is inevitably followed by the U.S. taxpayers are going to shell out to alleviate it. One follows the other as inexorably as night follows day.

(Unless, o'course, it's the U.S. military that has caused the slaughter involved, against some who might have the temerity to resist our "benevolent hegemony," to quote one of the neocons that some "VIP Members" here inexplicably adore. In which case it's obviously true that the idiots got what was coming to them, sayeth the media, if it's even reported at all. But that's another obscenity for another thread.)

Bush has already promised that three U.S. warships, supposedly loaded with humanitarian supplies, will be put off the coast of Burma. The military junta, having perhaps been perspicacious enough to read Homer's tale of the Trojan Horse, isn't falling for it.

Now, the talk is that the U.N. Security Council will be urged to authorize military action to deliver relief supplies, whether that government wants them or not. Altruism at gunpoint.

(Would that have allowed the British to re-invade New Orleans, nearly two centuries after the first time? But I digress again.)

It's come to the point where I don't want to even hear about disasters, period. Certainly not the "metaphysical" ones, even if they're in the next county. They've become automatic claims on my life, my productivity, my future. I exist, in the eyes of the feds and their abettors, as only a milch cow to feed the rest of the world's misery.

That has leached away any fellow-feeling for the rest of humanity on my part — unless I am trading with them. "Mr. Ward, what is it that the foulest bastards on earth denounce us for, among other things? Oh yes, for our motto of 'Business as usual.' Well — business as usual, Mr. Ward!"

Edited by Greybird
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"It's come to the point where I don't want to even hear about disasters, period....They've become automatic claims on my life...That has leached away any fellow-feeling [except toward traders with me]" [Greybird]

That's really very sad.

Not only does your second of the above three statements not follow, but (leaving aside that over-generalization: there are many cases where the U.S. has -not- intervened to send food or money or troops to overthrow dictators) your whole attitude displays a shocking, cranky, bitter-old-man type of malevolence which is extremely unattractive in an Objectivist or in any human being.

And it's unjust.

The absence of benevolence problem is a big one in Objectivist circles. I gave a whole lecture on it at a summer conference. Year after year, not seeing the world go the way they want, people move further and further into the darkness of malevolence, as the disappointments of youth pile up. They lash out at the uncomprehending and dishonest (in their minds) fools and suckers (in their view) the world is comprised of.

They harden their heart emotionally when they hear of death or disaster: Being a student of Objectivism means never having to say you're sorry to hear of it. One wonder if, upon passing a car wreck, they don't feel a twinge of horror or empathy. They seem to think that Objectivism means having the emotional sensitivity of an Ebeneezer Scrooge.

And when you call them on this, these (usually older, in order to have become this cranky) Objectivists scream "altruism! altruism! altrusim!" entirely missing the point...and injecting it where it hasn't yet even appeared.

The lack of empathy for ordinary people, for the country, for the men surrounding one. Despite the fact that one is hardly perfect oneself.

Ayn Rand modeled this kind of behavior in some of her moods.

She is a proper role model in many ways....

...This ain't one of them.

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It's come to the point where I don't want to even hear about disasters, period. Certainly not the "metaphysical" ones, even if they're in the next county. They've become automatic claims on my life, my productivity, my future. I exist, in the eyes of the feds and their abettors, as only a milch cow to feed the rest of the world's misery.

That has leached away any fellow-feeling for the rest of humanity on my part — unless I am trading with them. "Mr. Ward, what is it that the foulest bastards on earth denounce us for, among other things? Oh yes, for our motto of 'Business as usual.' Well — business as usual, Mr. Ward!"

There are what, 5 1/2 billion people on this planet? Americans don't even add up to the 1/2 billion part of the sum. But almost every one of those billions are victims of something or someone. You, me, the kid in Africa dying of malaria. The US Marine blown up into a lifetime of gross disability in Iraq. If victimhood psychologically defines us, though, we have been self-enslaved to the victimizers, real and imagined, body and soul.

--Brant

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More generally, methinks I simply watch too many newscasts.

[...] almost every one of those billions are victims of something or someone. You, me, the kid in Africa dying of malaria.

Those last are indeed victims — though I'd say the term is diluted too much by using it here — of the metaphysical, in the sense and to the extent that human beings cannot control such events.

(Or when the events are abetted by someone beyond their influence or persuasion, such as, here, the worst mass murderer in human history, Rachel Carson.)

The US Marine blown up into a lifetime of gross disability in Iraq. [...]

He or she, though, is not a victim. It used to be that mercenaries would be called by their right names, though not any more. That is what they are. They chose to be there, or accepted an arrangement where they knew that they had a sizable chance of being forced to be there. (If they were conscripted, that would be a quite different matter.)

Their being part of the carnage in Iraq is not metaphysical, it can be stopped by an instant act of will, but it is not done.

When do I empathize for such an injured person? When I've traded with him, as I said. Either materially or spiritually — this last, in other words, if I have a personal connection in some way.

I can't empathize with the whole world's troubles, as such. When would that leave me energy to carry out the only moral project that is actually under my control: the building and maintenance of my own life, and of those I trade with and know about?

And when I'm either extorted from in order to, or browbeaten into, "showing compassion," I remember that someone of self-esteem only gives such attention and substance when it's self-motivated, reflecting his or her own values, and not by dint of force or intimidation.

If that makes me a "cranky old man" of 49, so be it.

Oh, and by the way, Scrooge was the good guy.

Edited by Greybird
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I can't empathize with the whole world's troubles, as such. When would that leave me energy to carry out the only moral project that is actually under my control: the building and maintenance of my own life...?

All I want is 50 million dollars

And seal skins to protect me from the cold

If I only knew how stocks would go in Wall Street

And were living on a mountain built of gold

If I only owned Pennsylvania Railroad

And if Tuesday Weld would only be my wife (Oh, Tiny!)

If I could only stay sixteen forever

Then I'd know that I'd be satisfied with life

If I only owned Western Union cable

And if Tuesday Weld would only be my wife (Tiny, I love you!)

If I could only stay sixteen forever and ever and ever

Then I'd know that I'd be satisfied with life.

- Tiny Tim, Satisfied With Life

Edited by Wolf DeVoon
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  • 1 year later...

Brother, here we go again. This time, it's 500,000 dead, if a Haitian senator can be believed.

All I'll say, this go-round: Better that the USS Carl Vinson* is delivering relief supplies, rather than using its bombs to empty the intestines of the inhabitants of Sanaa, Yemen into the street gutters. Such cold comfort is better, apropos of the other imperial war-making going on, than none at all.

_____

* We once had the decorum to wait until these hacks had turned fully into worm food before naming the State's tools after them.

Edited by Greybird
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Not my problem. Not our problem. And I hate the people who have brought me to this degree of hardness.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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I must add that while watching someone said the earthquake came at a bad time from Haiti. I didn't think there had ever been a good time for Haiti. With US relief some of the people will get something to eat.

Someone on another broadcast noted that Haitians have been successful in this country. Could this fact have to do with the fact that there is reason, freedom, and the rule of law in this country.

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I must add that while watching someone said the earthquake came at a bad time from Haiti. I didn't think there had ever been a good time for Haiti. With US relief some of the people will get something to eat.

Someone on another broadcast noted that Haitians have been successful in this country. Could this fact have to do with the fact that there is reason, freedom, and the rule of law in this country.

No more successful than many other blacks who immigrated to the US from other parts of the Caribbean. Compared to American born blacks, immigrants seem to be more successful in general. In part I think that's because they are immigrants: they've already shown the motivation and skill needed to leave their own country and start a new life here. Plenty of their countrymen don't have one or the other. In part I think it's also because they come from communities where blacks are the majority population and in control of government, etc. They don't have white folks to turn blame onto or to put onto guilt trips, and they know what the exercise of responsibility is (even if their politicians screw it up royally--Antigua is a good illustration of that point).

Part of the problems in Haiti stem from racism, however: both external albeit now confined to history (the refusal of many countries, including often enough the USA, to recognize them as an independent country and trade with them because Haiti was both a country full of blacks and the result of a successful slave revolt), and internal and still ongoing--the conflicts between those with some white ancestry and those without. Usually the wealthier elements were mulatto, and the poorest Haitians full blooded African, and that distinction has played a part in Haitian history from the beginning of the slave revolt to the present. "Papa Doc" Duvalier built his tyranny on popular dislike of the mulattos (the voudou connection was part of that popular image building), and a main reason that his son ("Baby Doc") lost power was because he abandoned his father's base and tried to meld with the mulattos by marrying into one of the wealthiest families in Haiti (and not so incidentally extremely light skinned--I once knew Baby Doc's sister-in-law, who could pass for white, was married to a Lebanese and had lived in France as much as in Haiti even before the revolution that drove her sister and brother in law into exile).

Of course, those aren't the only reasons why Haiti is so poor that mudpies are a common food item there.

Jeffrey S.

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I must add that while watching someone said the earthquake came at a bad time from Haiti. I didn't think there had ever been a good time for Haiti. With US relief some of the people will get something to eat.

Someone on another broadcast noted that Haitians have been successful in this country. Could this fact have to do with the fact that there is reason, freedom, and the rule of law in this country.

No more successful than many other blacks who immigrated to the US from other parts of the Caribbean. Compared to American born blacks, immigrants seem to be more successful in general. In part I think that's because they are immigrants: they've already shown the motivation and skill needed to leave their own country and start a new life here. Plenty of their countrymen don't have one or the other. In part I think it's also because they come from communities where blacks are the majority population and in control of government, etc. They don't have white folks to turn blame onto or to put onto guilt trips, and they know what the exercise of responsibility is (even if their politicians screw it up royally--Antigua is a good illustration of that point).

Part of the problems in Haiti stem from racism, however: both external albeit now confined to history (the refusal of many countries, including often enough the USA, to recognize them as an independent country and trade with them because Haiti was both a country full of blacks and the result of a successful slave revolt), and internal and still ongoing--the conflicts between those with some white ancestry and those without. Usually the wealthier elements were mulatto, and the poorest Haitians full blooded African, and that distinction has played a part in Haitian history from the beginning of the slave revolt to the present. "Papa Doc" Duvalier built his tyranny on popular dislike of the mulattos (the voudou connection was part of that popular image building), and a main reason that his son ("Baby Doc") lost power was because he abandoned his father's base and tried to meld with the mulattos by marrying into one of the wealthiest families in Haiti (and not so incidentally extremely light skinned--I once knew Baby Doc's sister-in-law, who could pass for white, was married to a Lebanese and had lived in France as much as in Haiti even before the revolution that drove her sister and brother in law into exile).

Of course, those aren't the only reasons why Haiti is so poor that mudpies are a common food item there.

Jeffrey S.

Jeff S; This is a very thoughtful reply.

I was noticing the list of items needed in Haiti which came down to everything and all I could think was what General Sheridan said when he was stationed in Texas and was told by someone that all Texas needed was water and a few good people. Do which the general replied that was all hell needed.

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  • 11 months later...

I've HEARD that immigrants get special loans and grants to help them, but dunno if it's really so. If it is so, that would explain a lot, too. I get less and less "altruistic" every day, because those people are no longer ignorant of the rest of the world, as used to be the case 30 or so years ago? Why do they STAY in such filth? I'd get out, or die trying, rest assured of that. One and all, the Marines VOLUNTEERED to go play "bully", and if some of them get blown up, tough stuff, in my book. We have ZERO "national interests" outside of our borders. How would we like it if Holland, Greenland, Panama, etc, asserted that somebody HERE had violated THEIR "conspiracy laws" and came and kidnapped US citizens, invaded, say, Hawaii, to "free" the Native Hawaiians from the US. After all, we DID take HI by force of arms, you know.

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How would we like it if Holland, Greenland, Panama, etc, asserted that somebody HERE had violated THEIR "conspiracy laws" and came and kidnapped US citizens, invaded, say, Hawaii, to "free" the Native Hawaiians from the US. After all, we DID take HI by force of arms, you know.

John:

This assertion appears to have some small degree of truth to it, in that a small contingent of Marines did land during the Queen's agreeing to temporarily step down, which became permanent.

"The opportunity for annexation came in January 1893, when Queen Liliuokalani announced that she would proclaim a new constitution for her kingdom, which would, among other things, limit the power of the planters by removing the property qualifications for voting and restricting the vote to native Hawaiians. After much secret plotting, Thurston and his followers simply declared that the monarchy was abolished, and called upon Ambassador Stevens to formally recognize the new provisional government and to call ashore a detachment of marines from the naval warship Boston, which happened to be in port, in order to “secure the safety of American life and property.” The Queen, recognizing the inevitable, and in order to avoid violence, issued a statement agreeing to step down, but noting that she was doing so under duress and only (as she thought) temporarily.

Read more at Suite101: The United States Annexation of Hawaii: The First American Overthrow of a Foreign Government http://www.suite101.com/content/the-united-states-annexation-of-hawaii-a203938#ixzz198ljoQu2"

Adam

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