CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others.

submitted by Alduin from self.changemyview

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[–]JasonCarswell 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

My first reaction was exactly what Mnemonic perfectly stated.

By the end of it I had tried to view it differently and by the time I'd read to the end of your response that I don't really agree with I came up with a third way...

As you said, some people have more effect on circumstances of others, but I still don't see them being more "valuable" (discounting property).

Someone shoots the president and a lot of things change. Someone shoots a bodyguard and a few things change. It's just change. The bodyguard is doing his job, but I don't think he's less valuable. Maybe it's time for a change, sometimes change is for the better or worse, or different, or just more of the same. Maybe the bodyguard would have had a grandchild who would have been president.

The existential right to exist and the inherent value cannot be divided or diminished. You exist or you don't. You're either pregnant or you're not. And you cannot be more pregnant than someone else who's pregnant (though you may have more puppies), unless they are not pregnant. And if you are not pregnant and have a living creature inside them then it may be a parasite twin or you may soon have an alien burst from your chest. Consult a doctor.

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

So if the change a person's death causes could be better or worse, do you also think the value of a person's life could be positive or negative?

Or maybe a better question is, what do you think makes a life valuable?

[–]JasonCarswell 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

If I give you a crisp brand new $20 US dollar bill - how much is it worth?

If a crumpled up, with "US out of Iraq" scrawled across the bottom, partly ripped but intact, $20 US dollar bill is found on the floor of a truck stop bathroom with excrement on it - how much is it worth?

It may not be pleasant but a life is a life.

Theft is bad. Murder is the greatest theft.

https://www.shmoop.com/quotes/hell-of-a-thing-killing-a-man.html

There's a lot of grey in how you or your tribe or state may or may not participate in theft, and even the greatest theft, but a life is a life.

Value like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like and don't like a lot of stuff, but those are my judgements, and it's evolved over the years, and I may freely express my views, but I draw the line at forcing anyone to conform. I abide by Natural Law.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=YouTube%20Natural%20Law%20Mark%20Passio

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm not talking about murdering anyone. I don't have any more of a right to take another person's life or property than anyone else. But if they do nothing with the life they're given, then I think it's worthless. If they do nothing but harm with the life they're given, then I think it's a liability. If they do good, then it has value and is worth preserving.

I don't understand the $20 bill analogy. The thing that gives the $20 bill value is what it can do (be traded for things), so in that way the pristine and the damaged bill are worth the same, being able to be used for the same purpose. But a person has neither the capability or the inclination to do the same thing as the next.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You are free to judge and have opinions as you see fit. You have a right to express these too. No one has a right not to be annoyed by assholes. But when it crosses the line from words and ideas to physical actions or non-actions, like denial of proper food, water, shelter, healthcare, etc - then it's no longer an opinion and freeshpeaches.

Their life is theirs to waste. As is yours. If you're not earning for the boss then one could argue you're wasting your life on SaidIt. You can "waste" your life doing all sorts of things - online nonsense, watching movies, sports, watching sports, doing drugs, painting shit no one will see, fixing old cars, gardening, inventing, charity work, community projects, helping others, protesting, teaching, caring for family, etc.

When you put a value on life, as insurance companies do, then you begin to make it a life or death matter.

A $20 dollar bill, new or covered in shit, is still worth $20 dollars. Universally. A life is still a life, whether they're "valued" or not. There are no $20 dollar bills in circulation that are worth more or less than $20 dollars. What, where, when, why, how you spend it on is another matter. It's still $20.