Nancy's Musings

Have you ever scrolled down your Facebook feed and run into one of  those posts. . . you know, the click-bait "articles" titled things like "10 things totally awesome people do" or "15 thoughts awesome people never have" in the style of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People ? They aren't written by psychologists, and they aren't backed up by anything other than photos of attractive celebrities. They seem like harmless motivational advice, like the kind you get on free calendars, or you find framed in black and hanging on every wall in that call center where you work. These articles make a serious transgression, and I would encourage anyone reading this to mitigate the damage by not re-posting. Not all of the articles transgress in this way, but if you can't read critically with this idea in mind, remember that somebody will, and your carelessness can hurt them.  So, uh, Happy Galentine's Day. I'll talk more about the context I think ...

I have been seriously considering recently if (and if so, when) it is ever okay to consider one's self above or before others. It seems like a stupid question, but I work on the assumption that the universe is logical, if complex, and that rules exist in a hierarchy. The most obedient person is one who has the rules appropriately prioritized. By this amusingly simplistic rubric, getting into heaven begins with designing and running an algorithm. After that, it's a hardware problem. Well, why not? But what about selfishness. Is it ever okay to think of myself first? Contemporary thought would suggest that we dress and accoutre ourselves for ourselves as a thinking and creative subject, rather than thinking of ourselves as objects of a critical gaze. That is, we decide how to clothe or make up ourselves because of how it makes us feel, rather than what other people (either for arousal or judgment) think/feel. But isn't that selfish? If we were selfless, wouldn't we care t...