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titanomachylast Thursday at 12:42 AM1 replyview on HN

Not everyone exercises perfect control over the activities of their mind, and not every thought is carefully selected for optimum results before thinking it.

The point is just that even altruistic people, who one might presume are disinclined to such judgments, can find themselves making them after a time.

Besides, the doctor in my example was not even judging people, merely expressing exasperation at the inability for the resources expended to hit their intended targets. No one likes to feel like their work is meaningless, and getting paid (in public funds, no less) for patients who don’t show up might feel meaningless.


Replies

crispinblast Thursday at 9:01 PM

We agree on the empirical fact that many people generate suffering for themselves by encouraging an inner narrative of complaint about others' behavour.

If there's disagreement, it seems to be about whether or not this is necessary. I contend (along with thousands of wise narrators from just about every culture throughout human history) that it is not. This is just spiritual/ideological/psychological pragmatism (depending on your metaphysical orientation), and is intrinsically unrelated to altruism or perhaps ethics. Indeed someone holding a view that judgement of others is ethically or morally 'bad' merely shifts the target of the wasted mental judging-activity to their own putative ego.