[48] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: LIVING WAGE SIT-IN AT HARVARD (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher D. Beland)
Thu Apr 19 18:00:33 2001
Message-Id: <200104192158.RAA02467@Press-Your-Luck.mit.edu>
To: "Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: The events that comprise the history of the universe.
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 17:58:48 -0400
From: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
> True! Like I said, I have no beef with the workers getting as much
> dough as they can. But, to turn this into a moral crusade rooted in
> "social justice" is unconscionable; not because earning money is
> wrong, but because the concept of "social justice" is wrong.
You seem to be on your own moral crusade to promote laisse faire
capitalism. Which is great, but merely stamping up and down does not
seem to provide much justification for it. To be fair, Zhe seems to
have done a fair bit of stamping up and down (not to mention name
calling) herself.
Hurray for symmetric pointlessness! Now can we please get back to
ruthlessly thrashing each other to no avail for good reason? 8P
> Well, I have a younger brother, and I love him very much. I love
> him because he's honest, fun, ambitious, etc. -- these are values to
> me. If he were dishonest, whiny and generally unlikable, I would
> probably disown him. You have to be religious, self-sacrificial or
> have a poor understanding of biology to think that blood relation
> has any significance in this context.
And I respect the janitors of Harvard for the important yet often
probably unpleasant work that they do. It makes me happy to see them
treated in a way that I would like to be treated if I were in their
shoes. I think it would be much nicer to have happy janitors that are
glad to handle special requests that they don't necessarily have to.
I think it's good for them to have time to properly educate their kids
so they can go off and be productive members of society. I think it's
good for my neighbors in Cambridge to have time to socialize, and
participate in neighborhood affairs to help make my world a better
place. It's nice for various minority groups (*everyone* is a member
of *many* minorities) to stand up for one another; this week it's the
janitors at Harvard who need public pressure, next week, it's the
students at Random. What have they done for the community lately?
Maybe it's unlikely I'll end up as a janitor at Harvard, but I might
fall on hard times someday and end up doing unskilled labor somewhere.
All of these things have real psychological value to me, in the same
way that your brother's happiness has to you, and in the same way that
the working and living conditions of Harvard's custodians has to them.
So in some sense, social problems *are* my problems, because a.) I
care about them, b.) they have practical effects on society at large,
which I have to live in c.) they have practical effects for me if I
interact with people affected by them either personally or
politically.
So how does the typical MIT student know when to get involved in local
politics? Do I do a rigorous cost-benefit analysis? If so, how do I
count the benefit of a achieving a personal sense of justice? Of
properly raising the next generation? Of good relations with my
neighbors? Alternatively, I could establish a good set of
democratic, capitalistic, libertarian principles, and generally mind
my own business unless I felt one of those principles had been
violated. But how and why do I chose those principles? Is it not
because of some higher goals -- usually either personal happiness or
social good, right? How can I tell if following the general rule is
creating badness, and that an exception should be crafted?
I actually believe in many of the principles you espouse, but the
situation at Harvard presents itself as a practical problem to be
solved. The proposed solution does not really seem to violate any
important principles, since it only involves private lobbying.
In the end, I can't blame other people much for not caring, but I
don't know how much I can justify them yelling at me for caring. Next
thing I know, my housemates will yell at me for doing their dishes and
picking up their trash.
-B.
