March 25, 2008
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"If you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem." True or false?
Um, no. I get the point of this saying: that as an able bodied person, you should be getting involved to help find solutions when there is a problem, but it's all relative. If I'm walking in the city in the middle of the afternoon and there are two junkies shooting up on a street corner, I am NOT part of the problem. And at that point in time, I am not going to SOLVE that particular problem. Getting directly involved at that point in time probably is a very stupid move. However - I can teach my own child to say no to drugs....and try to raise him right, and then maybe HE will never be the heroine addict on the corner....but again....even the well raised child can be swayed to do things not good for them.....that's part of going out and becoming enveloped in society...in life. He will still be responsible for his own decisions, no matter how much I want to lock him in his room and keep him safe from the big bad world. So no, this is an "absolute" statement that has too many grey areas to be accurate.
But it still makes a good point. It's better to be part of the solution than be the one creating the problem....
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Comments (2)
Well stated. The grey area is always the most difficult...and the one always so obviously present.
I think one could dodge this by simply asserting ethical nihilism (denying the existence of objective moral values), unfortunately, that person would have no argument if they tried to coerce him into helping!