Better Future

Doesn't it just refer to the fact that virtuous women are very rare? Maybe virtuous men are also unicorns.

What the dead don't know, can't hurt them.

This man bad, he commit crime, lock in cage. This man bad too, he commit crime, kill him. What is bad? What is crime? How can we actually reduce suffering?

Ideally your child wouldn't be running wild, intentionally breaking things. If that is occurring regularly then you are not doing your job properly. Such events do occur though, even if you are doing your job properly. Sit them down and explain why they should not have done it. (correct) Ask them why they did it. (correct) Ask them not to do it again. (incorrect) I think an appropriate punishment. (incorrect) Pay for what they broke. (correct) Don't just ask the child not to do it again. The child needs to understand why they should not behave in that manner. Paying for what they broke is not punishment, it is just rational morality, something that all children should understand. Also, don't just do this once and hope it doesn't happen again. This is red flag behaviour and you need to address it every day to ensure that it does not occur again.

I do vote, but only to troll my government with this guy. Maybe when the state collapses, people will remember that weird guy who warned us about what was going to happen.

I don't see how punishments such as time out are any different from putting an electric shock collar on a child and pushing the button each time he or she does something you don't like. I don't like this behaviour, you need to stop it. Here, have some pain, hopefully you wont do it again because you don't like pain do you. It is control through fear. Sure, it may change behaviour, but you are just turning the child into your own personal unthinking puppet.

How many times do I have to tell people? Don't date robots!

I would say that we are all victims of circumstance. Some are also victims of circumcision. We all make choices, but the choices we make are determined by all previous experiences that we have had up to that point. Brain structure is determined by genetics, parenting/caregivers, peer group, teachers and the wider culture. It explains why ignorance, poverty, drug abuse and violence occur in cycles and why ideologies continue through time. Shouldn't we expect a more random distribution of human behaviour if people really were completely free to make their own choices? But instead we see cycles of behaviour that change gradually over time. I call it cultural momentum. So I believe that punishment is irrational and immoral. Isolate people to reduce harm, sure, but don't do it to get revenge. We should analyse events that result in harm so that we can minimize their occurrence in the future.

You should scream for joy. The universe has become conscious in the form of you. Enjoy it. A smiling man is rich. A frowning man is poor.

Would you make a distinction between a hungry man killing something to eat and a man killing something for dinner, to celebrate his birthday?

In the sense that most people do not respond to rational discussion. Most people respond to their own emotions. Which was the intention of this event. It may not achieve the desired outcome but I can see the logic behind it.

I think he made a valid point and I think he made it well. He could have explained how humans make arbitrary value judgements about different species, but I doubt that would have had much of an impact. I would be interested to see the conversations that this event has provoked.

I intended my statement to be simultaneously funny and true. Humour always seems to find a way into my posts. I see society as a tangled web of indoctrination. I see criminals as victims who victimize. Most people see themselves as good but end up victimizing others every day. Some happen to do it to a much greater degree. We draw an arbitrary line in the sand and put people in cages when they cross it. Yes, I think restitution is rational, although I also see the perpetrator as a victim. The justice system generally focuses on two people. The perpetrator (second from left) and the victim (far left). Imagine a child who has been indoctrinated by religious extremists. He is indoctrinated to believe that causing damage to the property of others is a good thing. He then destroys a building worth millions of dollars. Should he be made to pay that off for the rest of his life? Should his parents also pay? And his grandparents? This is an extreme case that is easy to understand, but I actually see all people as being indoctrinated in the same way. Ideally we would shift our resources toward prevention of harm. We would ensure that all parents were up to the same standard as Stefan Molyneux. Parents and teachers would be able to detect red flag behavior in children and problems would be dealt with immediately. Can you imagine a world that would result from that? Interpersonal harm would be greatly reduced but would still occur of course. We would then analyse the events that led up to the harmful events in order to minimize the occurrance of them in the future.

Exactly. Everything humans do can be traced back to reproduction. Try it for yourself next time you see a human and see if you can trace the behaviour back to reproduction.

If she is to be punished for defrauding government then government should be punished for defrauding taxpayers and taxpayers should be punished for defrauding their neighbours by voting. I don't support punishment at all. I think it is an irrational concept.