Bank Accounts

[henryp]

You are free to choose pleasure over the life of another person.  You just have to accept the implications of doing so. 

Actually, you don't have to accept the implications, you can just rationalize your way around it.  A perk of being human, I suppose.

No, I needn't rationalize my way around it; I accept the fact that I cannot, nor should I, accept responsibility for everyone else.

Put another way, right now, we're both spending time on the Internet when we could be volunteering down at the food bank. I'm fine with that decision, and refuse to feel guilty simply because you are busy throwing the trip.

If you don't like that, tough. Get off the internet and exemplify your ideals; or, alternatively, drop the superiority act because you're in the same boat I'm in, putting personal needs and desires in front of those of strangers. 

Smug sanctimony never makes a good impression, especially when its only support is a false dichotomy.

Here's the minor problem with your "smug sanctimony" nonsense.  I don't care about kids dying in Africa.  Just like I don't care about whoever goes to the food bank.  That's why I'm here typing on the internet, because feeding homeless people seems boring, and I have no interest in doing it.

When you say "exemplify your ideals," I've done that.  My actions and my beliefs are in lockstep.  

So the question is: are we 'in the same boat' as you put it, or not?  You think I'm trying to lay a guilt trip, when my argument is really that people don't need to pretend to care.   But that may be false. Some people may need to pretend to care. Just like some people need to 'believe' there is a God. Humans are a tricky bunch.