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When is enough enough?

Author
Kyllsa Siikanen
Tuonelan Virta
#1 - 2014-08-26 11:35:59 UTC
We all serve some cause; that cause may be as straightforward as the accumulation of wealth, or as complicated and demanding as finding a cure for some disease, securing cluster-wide peace, or improving the lot of one's people. Virtually no one commits an act of evil, believing it to be evil at the time; social norms are convincing, powerful things.

My question for all of you is open ended, and without any agenda; I ask because I seek your opinions, your views, not because I intend to judge you; though, of course, doing so in unavoidable, I will keep my thoughts to myself. What won't you do in pursuit of your goals? When is enough enough? Where is the line you will not cross?

For me, I refuse to hold responsible those who did not commit the acts I find abhorrent; there is nothing to be gained in it, save an endless cycle of further retribution. While I value tradition (more than most, I'd wager - see above regarding norms!) I do not value clinging to that which prevents improvement, on any level.

What is yours?

“Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.” 

― C.S. Lewis 

Karynn Denton
Lekhantsi Salvage Depot
#2 - 2014-08-26 12:23:21 UTC
Interesting question, Shaman.

I would never disgrace my Ancestors, of course.
Nor would I settle, acknowledge the Thukker Tribe as part of the Republic, or knowingly harm a child.

Other than that, anything goes.

Karynn Denton

Caravan Master

Jinari Otsito
Otsito Mining and Manufacture
#3 - 2014-08-26 12:50:05 UTC
When is enough enough? When there are no more grievances. This will have to be up to the individual to determine. For many it's not about retribution or vengeance. It's about restoring that which has been lost. It's about righting a wrong. It's about delivering your kin from suffering or death. It's about fixing that which is broken. It's about improving the lot of yourself or others.

Whether the opponents believe themselves to be evil or righteous is of little consequence. It's what you consider to be abhorrent, immoral or a threat that matters, and whether or not you act upon it. Social norms may justify things for those in that society, but unless it holds up to your own moral and ethical compass, why would you consider it justified or unworthy of action?

Where is my line? There is none. There is only the act of greatest good or lesser evil. The specifics depend entirely on the situation at hand.

Oh, and your agenda is showing. Might want to tuck it in a bit.

Prime Node. Ask me about augmentation.

Anslo
Scope Works
#4 - 2014-08-26 13:03:03 UTC
My line is when people try to spin a simple thread as a way to smear some one. In other words, get ****** Jinari you self righteous little ****.

[center]-_For the Proveldtariat_/-[/center]

Jinari Otsito
Otsito Mining and Manufacture
#5 - 2014-08-26 13:05:29 UTC
I'm a starcluster, yay!

Prime Node. Ask me about augmentation.

Rouen-Michel en Lefevre
#6 - 2014-08-26 13:49:22 UTC
There is a significant distinction between the practical and the theoretical in this sort of question. It is all well and good to say that there are uncrossable lines when discussing hypotheticals, but it is a different thing altogether when one finds oneself in an emotional decision-making moment. Similarly, uncrossable lines are only made theoretically clear beforehand through the use of hypothetical situations that may have no resemblance to reality. Clear, straightforward hypothetical situations may help us organize our worldview in our minds and discourses but they are hypothetical for a reason - it is only through the removal of the majority of context that one can find that level of clarity.

Uncrossable lines, in reality, are only discovered afterward when it can be shown that one did not in fact cross them.
Stitcher
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#7 - 2014-08-26 13:53:56 UTC
For my part, I would strive to choose a goal in life that inherently can't require that I breach my moral principles under any conceivable circumstances.

Obviously, I'm not able to comment on inconceivable circumstances.

AKA Hambone

Author of The Deathworlders

Rouen-Michel en Lefevre
#8 - 2014-08-26 14:22:26 UTC  |  Edited by: Rouen-Michel en Lefevre
Stitcher wrote:
For my part, I would strive to choose a goal in life that inherently can't require that I breach my moral principles under any conceivable circumstances.

Obviously, I'm not able to comment on inconceivable circumstances.


How might this function without becoming tautological? If you choose a goal because it eliminates the possibility of violating your moral principles, does that not mean that not violating your moral principles is in fact the actual goal and whatever it is that you are filling your time with is merely a means to that goal? You are choosing a goal because it is your goal, is what I am saying. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your statement, but I am curious.
Pieter Tuulinen
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#9 - 2014-08-26 14:26:14 UTC
In my experience you never see that line until you've crossed it. It's not like mathematics, unfortunately, where X value of broken bodies and dreams is acceptable and y value is too many, it's an accretion of tiny sins and compromises. I didn't see the big picture until it was far, far too late.

For the first time since I started the conversation, he looks me dead in the eye. In his gaze are steel jackhammers, quiet vengeance, a hundred thousand orbital bombs frozen in still life.

Stitcher
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#10 - 2014-08-26 14:51:40 UTC  |  Edited by: Stitcher
Rouen-Michel en Lefevre wrote:
Stitcher wrote:
For my part, I would strive to choose a goal in life that inherently can't require that I breach my moral principles under any conceivable circumstances.

Obviously, I'm not able to comment on inconceivable circumstances.


How might this function without becoming tautological? If you choose a goal because it eliminates the possibility of violating your moral principles, does that not mean that not violating your moral principles is in fact the actual goal and whatever it is that you are filling your time with is merely a means to that goal? You are choosing a goal because it is your goal, is what I am saying. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your statement, but I am curious.



That's a fair point. My immediate reaction is that it's possible to have more than one life goal, of which one of mine would be "don't violate my moral principles" but now you've pointed it out I can see how that verges on the redundant. Hmm.

I can see I'll have to give Kyllsa's question some more thought.

AKA Hambone

Author of The Deathworlders

Jace Sarice
#11 - 2014-08-26 15:10:32 UTC
At the risk of the responses sounding like an echo chamber, I agree with the others that say lines are often discovered by crossing them. Never again is a much stronger sentiment than I would never.
Stitcher
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#12 - 2014-08-26 15:25:33 UTC
Just so long as we learn from other people's experience as well as our own. A line may only be visible in hindsight, but that doesn't mean that I have to be the one who first crosses it.

AKA Hambone

Author of The Deathworlders

Rouen-Michel en Lefevre
#13 - 2014-08-26 15:42:23 UTC
I would like to reiterate that hindsight may provide clarity without actually crossing any lines ourselves. One can have a theoretical framework for the practical application of moral principles and see it fulfilled through hindsight. There was a line we did not cross, our principles did in fact guide us admirably, and so forth. As the person previous to me mentioned, the formation of those principles is often reliant upon history and the experiences of others. The notion that one must experience everything for oneself is often a sign of a lack of discipline, not a necessity for forming principles.
Pieter Tuulinen
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#14 - 2014-08-26 15:58:02 UTC
Stitcher wrote:
Just so long as we learn from other people's experience as well as our own. A line may only be visible in hindsight, but that doesn't mean that I have to be the one who first crosses it.


Sometimes, in the dark, it can be hard to get the proper perspective or to see clearly enough to learn lessons from afar.

For the first time since I started the conversation, he looks me dead in the eye. In his gaze are steel jackhammers, quiet vengeance, a hundred thousand orbital bombs frozen in still life.

Darsena Izuma
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#15 - 2014-08-26 16:53:22 UTC
There was a time when my moral code was well defined, and matched with that of my parents. Life is short, and thus, sacred. Do not steal. Do not kill. Do no harm.

Then I became a god who treats with other gods.

Now there is only that which is expedient, and that which is not. That which is beneficial, and that which is not. There are, of course, concerns for the long-term ramifications of one's actions, especially when one is immortal, but those are questions of practicality, not morality. We are beyond such mundane concerns.

So, the answer is: the line does not exist.

Fedo are not what they seem to be.  Welcome to Night Vale.

Jade Blackwind
#16 - 2014-08-26 17:17:09 UTC  |  Edited by: Jade Blackwind
What if one has no goals?

Imagine a surfer atop a sea wave. What is his goal? To stay afloat until the wave crashes and to have fun. Imagine a skydiver falling through the atmosphere mile after mile. What is his goal? To survive the landing and to have fun, perhaps, to take some selfies and post them to be wow'ed at. Imagine a skydiver falling through the atmosphere of a large gas giant. One way ticket. There'll be no landing. Perhaps, some selfies to post, yes, and lots of fun during those minutes of descent. Then, nothing.

But are those selfies and fun the real goal, especially if someone was thrown there without consent, or after signing up for something else entirely? Then what is the goal? To feel the wind against the thin suit and to awe at the majesty of the immense cloudscape stretching before you, at the thunderstorms capable to devour Matar whole, to greet the stars and the ring splitting the horizon in two. Then, suffer for a while - because pressure - and die.

Poetry aside, I try to minimize collateral damage and to not betray people. Sentient beings that have emotions, such as infomorphs, count as "people". Other than that, anything goes. Especially towards eggers.
Rouen-Michel en Lefevre
#17 - 2014-08-26 17:55:43 UTC
Jade Blackwind wrote:
What if one has no goals?


Everyone that continues to live by their own volition by definition has at least a minimal goal, namely, to keep on living. It is a simplistic goal without much thought behind it, but a goal nonetheless. If that person had no goals whatsoever they would be dead.
Jade Blackwind
#18 - 2014-08-26 17:59:45 UTC
Rouen-Michel en Lefevre wrote:
Jade Blackwind wrote:
What if one has no goals?
namely, to keep on living
What if there is no goal to keep on living? In capsuleers, that is perfectly possible and, i'd say, quite common. There is no active desire to commit the final suicide, but zero self-preservation anyway. Then what?

Rouen-Michel en Lefevre
#19 - 2014-08-26 18:03:15 UTC
Jade Blackwind wrote:
Rouen-Michel en Lefevre wrote:
Jade Blackwind wrote:
What if one has no goals?
namely, to keep on living
What if there is no goal to keep on living? In capsuleers, that is perfectly possible and, i'd say, quite common. There is no active desire to commit the final suicide, but zero self-preservation anyway. Then what?


It is not possible to do so. Living requires resources. If one does not have the desire to live the resources would cease to be gathered and death would occur. Whether that resource is simply food and water for a baseliner or the maintenance of clones for a capsuleer, the maintaining of those resources indicates a desire to continue living. And thus, a goal.
Jade Blackwind
#20 - 2014-08-26 18:23:49 UTC  |  Edited by: Jade Blackwind
I'd argue with that, but i'm too bored, really.

Hint: Alpha clones are sponsored by governments en masse. One can suicide as often as he/she wishes, get podded to an alpha clone and yet come back for more insane sheetz and giggles for free. The final death requires either a conscious decision, or an upload error that can happen to anyone regardless of their will to live.
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