Practical Philosophy, Monday

[endsthegame]

"There are those of us who come here believing very strongly in duty," Ender said. "Others who come here to escape it - and some to who it's absolutely not a part of their lives."

He smiled a little.

"I had a mentor, once," he said. "I was told that people were free, unless humanity needed them, and that humanity never asked us to be happy, merely to act on its behalf - for its survival. Happiness, he felt, was a luxury that at times we could scarcely afford. To opt out of doing our duty at such a time was the worst crime imaginable: a crime of stupidity."

He took a sip of water. "I've met people who disagreed, since," he said. "I've also met people whose lives were so intricately bound to these rules they didn't even know where they stopped and the rules began. Some of you have already made your views fairly clear already, but I'm curious as to everyone else's input, too.

"How important is duty? Do we people all carry some grand responsibility to our species, or should we exist only for ourselves and the development of our self? And if we live for duty, then when does that end? Is there some point where all of us may be afforded personal freedom, or are we perpetually tied to our responsibilities, whether we flee from them or not?"

Comments

Re: Talk.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"How much better?" Eleanor asked. "Are you obligated to clean up every stray bit of litter, or simply to pitch in when the world seems ready to end?"

Re: Talk.

[not_every_mage]

"Somewhere in between," Anders said thoughtfully. "For me, I'd draw the line at anything where human lives or freedom are at risk. Someone else might only care about their clan. A third person might say they wanted to save animals too, or that theft was worth preventing. You need to go with the best you can do with what you have."

Re: Talk.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I've seen people take it too far," Eleanor said, a touch sheepishly. "To say that we're all obliged to save humanity from whatever ills they imagine, and to conscript the world into some kind of war to that effect."