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Originally Posted by Eddie38
Who decides what's worthy and what's not? I suppose it's up to me to decide what I deem worthy. But then, if worthiness is self-realized or self-determined, then I guess the crackhead down the street is successful. For him, robbing the old lady and buying a nice fat rock is his progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Or what about Bernie Madoff? He had his worthy ideal. Hitler had what he considered a worthy ideal.
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No, it doesn't work that way. The thing about an ideal's worthiness is that it must sit well with you and those around you. Your ideals should be a positive force. It might help to think of it this way: you can't be successful in a vacuum. You become successful by being of service to others. In return you are given rewards for your service. It's a concept that's difficult to refute. It's also rather basic. You need to fill in the particulars. How are you going to be of service to others? You need to provide something of value, just be sure it's on the good side of the law.
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I guess the point is, 'worthy' is a term that's too subjective to be of any use.
You know, I've always found ideals to be very subjective and shallow because they're always imposed on us by someone else, some religion, philosophy, or by society or government.
I don't know, I don't want to come off as some contrarian. Am I missing something here, Baraka?
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It's about taking a wide view: you have something valuable to offer those around you. If you don't feel this is quite the case, then a worthy ideal would be to work towards getting the skills and knowledge that would be of value to others and then offering them.
There's nothing shallow in wanting to be financially independent. It's shallow if you get it by selling crack to grade 8s. It's not shallow if you retire a millionaire by operating a lawn care business in your community (or whatever). You will get what you want out of life if you give others what they want.
You need to find out what makes you tick, what gets you going, what you're truly good at and enjoy doing. Then you figure out ways to offer it to people who need it and will pay for it. That's how societies and economies work. There's nothing shallow about it. You give them what they want, and they give you what you want upon mutual agreement.
Do this one step at a time and you'll be moving towards a worthy ideal.
---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Plan9
Don't be fooled, Baraka. It's all about the money.
I loved you in Wallstreet.
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The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed---for lack of a better word---is good.