Philosophy

Guilt

Since a passing comment on twitter turned into an ongoing discussion I thought I’d move it over here where I could at least hash our some of my thoughts on the subject. The other day Neil Strauss proposed a challenge that consisted of going 30-days without any guilt-motivated behavior. He speculated this would include guilt from “friends, family, religion, society, etc” which is a pretty wide playing field for something that isn’t immediately clear as to what might be involved. He notes that guilt and ethics are not the same thing, and that self-induced guilt is certainly included and usually where it all begins. He also offered up a few examples that would be considered guilt-motivated behavior:

Hanging out with someone solely because you feel bad for having blown them off for months.

Returning a call or email you don’t want to, or doing a favor for someone because you feel like you “owe them.”

I thought this was kind of interesting and tried to think of what might constitute guilt-motivated behavior (or GMB for the rest of this post) in my own day to day. It’s not quite as easy to isolate as I thought it might be so I proposed the question on twitter asking if others could recognize things which might be included. Honestly I didn’t expect an answer but @bruin’s reply sparked the conversation. He suggested that if you weren’t acting out of guilt, the only other option was to be a “selfish asshat.” Needless to say I tend to disagree with that assertion.

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Changing the world in 5 easy steps – Do something you love rather than something that pays the bills

[This is part five of the changing the world in 5 easy steps series]

Effort and perseverance always wins. Not right away, not today, and not tomorrow, but eventually it always does.

Doug Zell wrote that specifically talking about Mike Phillips when he placed first in the United States Barista Championship back in March. This weekend he placed 3rd in the World Barista Championship in Atlanta which is pretty awe inspiring when you take into account that 3 years ago he took his first job in the coffee world ever basically working in a warehouse at Intelligentsia in Chicago. Kyle Glanville once told me he’s regularly surprised by the lucrative careers people have given up to work in the field of coffee simply because it’s something they are passionate about.

Those folks are talking about their field but the same things apply to us in the rest of the world. There are only so many hours in a day, and only so many days in your life, and filling those with something you love I think is of the utmost importance. There was a time when prevailing wisdom was you should get a steady 9-5 job, work hard every day and save money for that one day down the line when you could finally retire and enjoy life. How the fuck was that ever considered wisdom? It’s the phrasing that tricks you, if someone had advised people to spend their entire lives doing something they didn’t like in preparation for a day that might never come I think people would have second guessed it a lot longer ago. Luckily we’re all starting to come around. The truth is that old way of thinking doesn’t ensure anything except that you, and likely those around you will be miserable for most of your life. Everything else is a crap shoot.

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Changing the world in 5 easy steps – Visit a Different Country

[This is part four of the changing the world in 5 easy steps series]

I’ve come to the conclusion that a great deal of the worlds problems come from people making assumptions about other people’s motives and opinions. And when those people are entire populations of countries that problem compounds quite a bit. A while ago I was talking to a guy, an American, who had a hell of a lot to say about what Europeans thought about Americans, and thus even more about how Americans should act towards and treat Europeans as a whole. This guy fancied himself quite the expert on global relations because he’d been stationed in Germany while in the military and had lived there for about 3 years. Here’s the thing – that was almost 30 years ago and he hadn’t left the US since. However, in his circle of friends he was the most traveled of them all so naturally he was the authority and knew what he was talking about. The only problem is that I, an American who has spent a lot of time in the last 2 years outside of the US, knew he was wrong on just about every single point.

I don’t consider myself an authority on any kind of international relations, but I’ve been places and met people and at least have some first hand experience. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t have that and so it makes it very easy for someone – a biased friend, a news agency with an agenda, or a government trying to push policies – to put forth bad info as truth and people eat it up. When you’ve been somewhere and seen it with your own eyes and talked to the people it makes it much harder for you to swallow an ill informed stance about it. And this doesn’t just apply to Americans – I know Europeans who have traveled to every country that borders theirs but never been on a plane and yet consider themselves well traveled. The world is a big place and there’s a hell of a lot of it most of us have never seen. That’s why I think one of the best things you can do for you, and for the rest of us, is pick a place you haven’t been and go there.

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Changing the world in 5 easy steps – Stop Buying Crap

[This is part three of the changing the world in 5 easy steps series]

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Stop. Buying. Crap.

As a recovering collector this is something I struggle with on a regular basis. But struggling with it is a step in the right direction, because at least it’s trying. This series is about things anyone can do with a little effort, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say this is the one that takes the most effort for me on a regular basis. Rather than run off a list of pros and cons for this I’m going to tell you a (rather long winded) story and maybe you’ll relate to it somehow.

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Changing the world in 5 easy steps – Ride A Bike

[This is part two of the changing the world in 5 easy steps series]
BikesThis is possibly the most obvious of the five topics being discussed in this series. The good thing about it is the benefits and arguments for it are pretty obvious, the bad thing about it is the benefits and arguments for it are pretty obvious. This means it makes a crappy discussion topic, though to do this series and not include it would be stupid. But obviousness and arguments aside adding a bike to your playlist of transportation methods is pretty much one of the best things you can do. For you, and for everyone.

It’s good for you. Chances are you aren’t as active as you should be and probably tell yourself all the time that you should be doing something but never get around to it. Excuses not to exercise are easy to come by, mostly who has the time? A bike is a great way to run small errands in your neighborhood and a few short trips leads to a few longer trips. It really is that simple, the more you do it the easier it gets and the more you want to. Additionally, when you suddenly realize how nice it is to run tot he coffee shop and not have to worry about parking or pay the $50 ticket you got while inside the shop a bike becomes much much more attractive. But this isn’t about you, it’s about the world.

If you are biking someone where there’s a very good chance you aren’t driving there. This means less pollution, less gas usage, less support of the gas industry, less congestion on the streets and parking lots, and more efficient use of your personal energy. It’s also hecka cheaper.

But most importantly you don’t have to go from never riding a bike to riding everywhere all the time to make a difference. Start small, get a bike and ride around your neighborhood. You’ll see how fun it is and start adding short errands. Ride to the corner store or to a friends house. If you work less than 5 miles from your house, try riding your bike to your office and see if that’s something you could reasonably do once or twice a week. I bet it is, and small steps like this lead to bigger one, and one person sets an example for others. Like I said, this one is the obvious topic in the discussion, but it’s important. So give it a shot.

Previously: Part 1 Go Vegan
Next: Part 3: Stop Buying Crap

Changing the world in 5 easy steps – Go Vegan

[This is part one of the changing the world in 5 easy steps series]

When I originally thought of this series and was brain storming with people, going vegan was something I always suggested people could do on a personal level that would have a global impact. This was skoffed at by pretty much everyone who had never looked into it on their own, the folks who had whole hearted agreed. That alone was enough reason for me to make the #1 topic on the list, not only because I think it’s a viable example, but I actually think it’s the most impactful thing on the list. The thing is most of the stuff I’m talking about will take something bad and make it good, but this actually goes to the source and cuts out the bad all together. I’ll explain why shortly and provide you with some extensive links for more research if you so choose.

Now before I get much further into this I want to make it clear that the only thing I’m talking about in this example is how what you eat impacts the world you live in and choices to eat more (or less) of some things can have global repercussions. I’m not talking about if veganism is good for you (it is) or healthier than a meat based diet (it is), animal rights, or if people who think you need to eat lots of dairy products to be healthy are just buying into a dairy industry’s marketing ploy (they are). However, since I know there are a lot of people reading this who think humans can’t survive without cheese burgers washed down with an icy glass of milk, I’ll provide some links at the end on that as well for anyone who wants to read up on it. But really, I don’t want to spend too much time on that in this post, if it’s a interesting enough topic I’ll write more about it later but for this “change the world” series those reasons don’t really play into it too much.

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