by jadedog

I happened to stumble across this blog post. I don't know how old it is or who this guy is. I just thought that the ideas were a bit thought-provoking because it's contrary to what people normally say.

Society judges people by what they can do for others. Can you save children from a burning house, or remove a tumour, or make a room of strangers laugh? You’ve got value right there.

That’s not how we judge ourselves though. We judge ourselves by our thoughts.

“I’m a good person”. “I’m ambitious”. “I’m better than this.” These idle impulses may comfort us at night, but they’re not how the world sees us. They’re not even how we see other people.

Well-meaning intentions don’t matter. An internal sense of honour and love and duty count for squat. What exactly can you and have you done for the world?

It has a ring of truth and a ring of cynicism. Or is it just a self-fulfilling prophecy? Do you agree with his assessment of life? I'm curious to see what other people think about this view.