First, we're not talking terminal disease. You tossed that in there. I'm talking the I'm-depressed-life-sucks-the-world-is-better-without-me suicide.
And demanding that someone lives with that kind of depression is any better? You do know that a lot of the anti-depressants essentially are addictive, so you may be looking at an even bigger depression down the line, right?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying treatment should be denied to anyone who wants treatment, but it seems to me like a choice they're going to have to make themselves. Not one that should be forced upon themselves on "how much you could contribute to society" considerations.
And I'm not saying your perspective is wrong. Far from it. It's perfectly fine to not take others into consideration. I'm just saying it's frickin selfish.
And demanding that someone has no right to decide what to do with their own life, in the name of their contributing to society isn't? Frankly, I wouldn't want to be in the kind of society who thinks they have the right to make that kind of demand on anyone.
Your point is well taken. Of course I was quite offended watching a dude make eye contact with me before jumping off a cliff and splattering into bits, scaring my girlfriend, and traumatizing a family that was nearby. The guy who did that obviously felt that the people who watched him would just have to learn to live with it. And I'm not saying he was wrong, I'm simply saying he was a dick.
For someone who pointed out my over-generalizing based on terminal illnesses, you sure seem to have introduced that kind of public performance as your own generalization. I dare say most people don't go kill themselves in front of others. But, point taken, suicide _should_ be a private business. As I was saying, I'm all for affording other people some basic courtesy.
Again, they don't. It's perfectly fine to not want to make the world a better place. That's up to you. All I'm saying is that's anti-social.
Adam Smith and a bunch of others would disagree. In the end we moved out of the middle ages when we stopped feeling entitled to tell others what they should do. That used to be the proper medieval way of thinking, really: you're a greedy anti-social dick, if you sell your goods for more than the prices fixed by society. (Read, by those in power.) You're a greedy anti-social dick if you demand better payment than the wages fixed for your social category. You're a vain anti-social dick if you even wear clothes above the level prescribed for your social category. (True story, really. Vainglory was a mortal sin.) You're a slothful anti-social dick if you're clinically depressed. You're a gluttonous anti-social dick if you eat better than what your baron considers an apropriate diet for your social category. Etc.
It seems to me like we only started moving out of that crap-hole once we started to accept that there's nothing wrong with people doing the things they want to do. The industrial revolution was the end-result of the process started when some people basically said "**** the community, this is _my_ land" and built a fence. You'd be surprised what a fence can do in the long run.
Plus, the kind of mentality where "society" can tell someone what to do with his/her life, rarely really involved "society" setting the rules. It was always someone electing himself to unilaterally set the rules for others.
I am of the opinion that EVERYONE has something to offer. Even a person who feels like they don't want to live anymore can still teach someone something they didn't know before.
Nobody said they don't have something to offer. But it seems to me like a basic freedom to let that individual decide exactly what of all those possible contributions they actually want to do.
For example, since we're talking teaching, I could have gone and taught physics at a high school level, but I decided to become a programmer instead. Maybe I could have even been a physicist instead. Heck, I even picked a computer university instead of a physics one for a reason as petty and selfish as that a good physics university was far away, while the other one was a subway trip away from my parents' home.
I'd hate to live in a society which thinks it's entitled to call me an "anti-social dick" just for choosing X when someone else thinks my contribution should have been Y.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. People can act however they want. All I'm saying is I don't like selfish, anti-social dicks.
And you're entitled to your own opinion, but calling someone a "selfish, anti-social dick" just because they're not doing the kind of contribution you feel entitled to demand from them... let's just say, seems to me like the more anti-social attitude by far. And counter-productive too, as I was saying.
