Arrogance - How we do associate ourselves into the mix?

Hi.

In light of spinning off the obese forum that seems to be generating a fair bit of controversy (even though I am remaining only an observer) I will propose the question...

Does your birthplace affect your right to make decisions for others?

Well, i am interested to see if this will (and other forums) will breed actual class discussion...

enjoy foruming,

byk

Does your birthplace affect your right to make decisions for others?

It shouldn't, but it does. Being born into a society where access to resources and wealth is much easier than in other countries, it is much easier for our voices to be heard. We have the resources to form organizations (such as aid organizations) that can have influence in other countries. We have so much access to wealth...we can spread information about other countries in our own. Take child labor in other countries...in canada we can fly there....investigate, then draw our conclusions, spin the information as we want, and pressure governments and organizations to take action. So in a very indirect way, we make decisions for people across the world. This has only become a reality in the past few decades...and will continue to grow as the world becomes more and more globalized.

save it for class tommorow hombre.

I guess for some people, winning the "Birth Lottery" is like winning the rights to make decisions for others. and sure, in some ways, being north american/european makes us more eligible to make decisions for others as we have the resources. However, sometimes we must questions the motives behind these decisions. for example, putting a certain president in power in a middle eastern country because they are "friendly" towards north america? questionable motives... also, we might not necessarily know what's best for the country in certain situations. sometimes, the country may recquire someone who lives there and understands the situation rather than getting decisions made by an outsider who's simply looking in.

I Agree with everything everyone is saying here...but shot in the dark, what if we were meant to be in the place we are to do such things as make decisions when others can't? i'm not saying we are... but what if that is part of our purpose? ( i dont believe that at all i'm just poking the fire here)

poke at it tomorrow too mmmkay?

The Orange Fender wrote:I Agree with everything everyone is saying here...but shot in the dark, what if we were meant to be in the place we are to do such things as make decisions when others can't? i'm not saying we are... but what if that is part of our purpose? ( i dont believe that at all i'm just poking the fire here)

Well then it's our God-given purpose, and we can't change that. We make decisions based on past experience, practical knowledge, etc... but hopefully we're never in the position where we have to make a decision where tons of people are effected.

So you're saying that it's our god given purpose, that because of where we were born, we should make decisions for other people? thats pretty arrogant.

not really if that is our purpose...its hypothetical, not a fact we are supposed to go and force peoples lives to be better

That seems to be what is being said though.

I agree with Mossadegh, our birthplace should not affect the way we approach others and make decisions, but unfortunately it does (with a twinge of arrogance I might add). I'm sure most of us take pride in where our state of residence lies, but we should not let our arrogance break through our conversations and affect them through bias and a "holier than thou" attitude.

No, I'm not saying that we should go out of our way to make decisions for people who can make their decisions for themselves. I'm saying that if we are put in the position (by God, I guess) to help people who can't help themselves, there's obviously a reason for it. We should make the most of the situation and help them as much as we can, not necessarily because of where we were born, but because of what our purpose in life is.

but how do you know when your a younger teen what your purpose is...when you are that young you are more likely to take advantage of where you come from rather then help them out.

but who are we to make decisions for the less fortunate? what makes us so special? god?

I don't think it's the fact that we're "more special". it's more the fact that we have been blessed with the resources to help those who have not been blessed as much as us. that's all i'm saying. if we're given the resources to help people, i think we should use those resources to help rather than being passive. Instead of sitting back and watching them try to help themselves, we should try to help them in whatever way we can. if this includes making decisions for them because they're not capable of it, so be it.

but how do we know what is best for them? how do we know what "help" is?

i think all of you should read "Outlire"

Mossadegh wrote:but how do we know what is best for them? how do we know what "help" is?

We might not know what is best for them... it's probably more seeing a need and filling it, if that makes sense. if they need food, provide it. if they need water, provide it. we might not be able to help them make decisions, but if we can fulfill their basic needs, the people themselves can concentrate on how to improve their quality of life. It's like the pyramid Mr. Boyko showed us, with food/water on the bottom, security next, love, etc. if we can help with the bottom of the pyramid, the rest can be left to them.
(Plato, please type more than one sentence.)

Doesn't that create dependance?

Maybe temporarily. But once they get going, their literacy rate rises, their economy grows, etc, they'll probably grow to be an independant nation.

okay, give me an example of this happening. most of the time the countries get "aid" in the form of loans from the IMF or world bank that they can never pay off and then they are screwed and have to do things in the interests of powerful countries and the money never gets down to the citizens that need it.

i think what nyx was saying was a hypothetical statement.

No maybe there isnt a country out there that has broken through but it is ignorance to say that lending foreign aid to a suffering country is pointless...

ignorance? or the sad reality?