Today’s society relies heavily on individualism. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. Today, I will not try to dispute that claim. Instead, I present some disillusion about self-help, mainly about other people recommending something to everyone. Non-personalized help.
Happiness is slavery
For a time, I was living under the impression that in the Nine Inch Nails’ album Broken there is a song where Trent Reznor sings: “Happiness is slavery”. Right until the point when I went to look for an accurate transcript of the lyrics when I found out it is actually “Happiness in slavery”. This…
Jeremy Bentham’s “The Principles of Morals and Legislation” (chapters 1-4)
This article was originally written for an Ethics class. In this work, specifically in chapters 1 to 4, Jeremy Bentham formalizes the basic principle of utility concerning legislative power. In the first chapter, he defines principle utility as a principle that approves of actions increasing the subject’s happiness or decreasing the subject’s pain. The subject…
John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty” (Chapter 1,2)
This article was originally written for an Ethics class. The work of John Stuart Mill is interesting to me, as it seems to be one of the early works arguing forindividualism. He emphasizes the liberty of the individual, constrained only very lightly by society. In the introduction, he writes about historical development in this sense….
Plato’s “Republic” (II. Book)
This article was originally written for an Ethics class. For the first time, I have read a part of Plato’s Republic and must admit that it is not as bad as I expected. The theme of the second book is centered around a state, even though it starts with the question of whether justice is…
Max Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation”
This article was originally written for an Ethics class. The work Politics as a Vocation starts with an interesting definition of a state. State, according to Weber, is the only group of people that claims the monopoly on the legitimized use of physical force. Further, he writes about the three ways of claiming authority. The…
Body positivity
Is your body something you should be positive about? Why? Is positivity really that important? Should you be positive about every aspect of your life?
In my view, this call for positivity is, in effect, harmful to people.
Socializing
I doubt that it will surprise anyone, but it is only fair to start by stating that I am not a very social person. The internet is the place I spend most of my free time on. But today, I might have gotten closer to understanding the appeal of socializing. More specifically, chilling in a…
You do not know what is best for you.
Individualism makes us all believe, that each of us should decide for themselves about themselves. Unless you are a kid, and even there, it strongly depends on how radical individualist a parent is. This leads to a crushing conclusion, that you (at least should) know what is best for you.
Is Idealism just Willful blindness?
What I have in mind, when posing this question is: “Is idealism a good thing for the democratic process? Are people with idealistic beliefs beneficial for democracy? Is democracy beneficial for idealists?” Let’s give these questions some time, you and I.