Theoretical Priorities
A preliminary essay about the value of dealing with First World self-actualization problems. I seem to write a lot of preliminary essays.
Probably an interesting series to follow. Nothing about the subjective values seems wrong to me, but it’s worth putting on the other foot.
And this is a thing I’ve been meaning to write an effort post on for a while.
If your life is fairly stable, it can be difficult to consistently see and value things from the perspective of those struggling lower on the Maslow Hierarchy, yes.
But if something really terrible has happened to you, it is goddamn nearly impossible to see things not from that perspective. If you are thrown in person for a false conviction, every political thing you understand about society will be in terms of “does it help you get out of prison.” Time spent by people sympathetic to you on causes that don’t help people in prison, will feel wasted and like they are forgetting you. Even oppressive overreaches by the regime may be a cause to be cheered, if it increases the likelihood that your allies will stop compromising and instead overthrow the regime.
The same applies if you are a victim of severe discrimination and harassment, or an immigrant drunk driver killed your child. It’s not that you aren’t aware there are other problems in the world, but they all become Category A or Category B problems.
And I hate to say anyone is ‘wrong’ here. I think that subjective position is one anyone, even the coolest rationalists, would fall into once they found themselves in the unjust prison. Mostly this is just for a sense of empathy about how people can construct ideologies entirely around the particularly thing giving them a really shitty time.
This can certainly be the way things shake out, although much depends on your (cultural) situation. Not everyone says “how dare the system be so unjust as to allow this to happen to anyone?” Sometimes, e.g, people say “how dare the system be so impertinent as to allow this to happen to someone like me?” Which produces a very different sort of response.