Well, the maxim I learned was: Only a right thing done in a right way is right.
Wrong thing done in a wrong way is obviously wrong (although sometimes it can amusingly *cause* right things to happen).
Wrong thing done in a “right” way would be, I suppose, making sure you’re wearing a condom while you cheat on your wife?
Right thing done in a wrong way would be trying to raise money for the school by selling drugs.
So like, just because your intentions are pure doesn’t mean the action taken was appropriate, let alone that the outcome will be beneficial.
A similar principle: Does it DO good, or does it merely FEEL good?
A lot of people jump on bandwagons to “do something” about a perceived problem, without stopping to consider whether their effort is pragmatically useful — whether it will solve the problem they hope to solve, and whether it will create other problems that might be just as bad or even worse. Not to mention whether it’s the best solution (given certain constraints that must be accounted for), and whether it’s objectively better than just doing nothing.
(Selkie’s plan, here, was obviously worse than just doing nothing.)
Affirmative Action, for example, seems on the surface to be a good way of compensating for generations of problems that make Black citizens of the Unites States statistically less prepared to deal with higher-level learning. It “feels good” to give those poor guys a leg up, right?
But what it does is push unprepared Black students into courses they end up dropping out of, while penalizing Asian students for being much *better* prepared than the average American. The statistics paint an ugly picture: This policy is not DOING good. It is harming the people it claims to want to help.
Here’s an odd one: It seems fair that a person on welfare should not make more money than a person holding down a job. However, some of the stricter attempts to control this line end up disincentivizing getting a job in the first place. They unfairly penalize welfare recipients who attempt to better their situation — and that’s not even accounting for daycare and transportation costs. Getting back on your feed needs that buffer, even if it feels unfair.
Or how about the TSA? It’s laughable ineffective (when they test it, like 70-80% of contraband (including weapons) gets by them without getting caught), and meanwhile it’s terrorizing children, the elderly, women, and the disabled, while training Americans to basically just accept that they’re gonna get molested and there’s not much anyone can do about it. We’ve traded in freedom for Security Theater that is measurably worse than doing nothing at all — because we’re more concerned with how things LOOK than with actually doing a good job at stopping terrorist attacks.
If I were going to illustrate that “road to Hell is paved with good intentions” phrase, I’m pretty sure I’d use a photo of the TSA.
An astute examination, Kilyle. A negative times a negative is a positive, but numerically, not morally!
I recall the architect Robert Moses asking “if the end doesn’t justify the means, what does?” as though any end can justify cruel means- and indeed, his objective has proved environmentally costly. And the lofty aims of prohibition, with its consequences for organised crime.
And today, the limiting of rights in the name of security- just what you say of the TSA, though not uniquely to that organisation or your great country. Didn’t Madeleine L’Engle originally suggest that scenario as the origin of Camazotz?
(Did I make an incorrect assumption there? I think you’re of the USA?)
I think affirmative action a good means poorly administrated, rather than a bad means per se, but this takes nothing from your criticism.
There is a concept that was circulated about my school, that it’s good to do a good deed. But if you announce that you did it, you didn’t get credit. It had to be good — and anonymous. You were encouraged to write that you did a good deed, and post it on a bulletinboard – but not for whom you did it, nor how much it cost to do it. EG: student from a foreign country (was studying science in the USA to avoid a forced marriage) didn’t realize that bookstore kit of coloured pencils cost $16.00USD for an art class elective. Her scholarship covered text books — but not art paper nor incidentals? But she couldn’t drive somewhere to get others. (Was Before Amazon was a ‘thing’) So I bought them for her, and slid them under her dorm room door as a surprize.
She was baffled by how they got there! I never told.
The TV show The Good Place also has an interesting take – motivation. If you only did that good thing to get into their version of Heaven or for, say, just trying to get good PR for yourself, it doesn’t count as a good act. It’s just selfishness disguised as good.
Long term effects also matter. Helping the homeless is good, right? But not when it spawns a multi-billion dollar industry and government agency that wants homelessness to persist because eradicating it means losing your job, as is the case in California right now, it’s no longer a good thing.
I must have a look at that show. I recall a philosophical argument that suggested that those who do good in expectation of heaven are really working in their self-interest, so don’t deserve heaven. The argument concluded that only atheists can be really good by heaven’s standards!
Um- I can’t think of the source- I thought it was from Jeremy Bentham, but an Internet search hasn’t turned it up. Dontcha hate that?
Ah the power of communication and an honest and heartfelt apology.
This is why most drama’s tick me off, everything is stirred up because no one TALKS TO EACH OTHER!
That’s why I no longer watch DomComs. The number of episodes that can be summed up as either “dad is an idiot” or “everyone causes huge trouble to avoid mild embarrassment” is just truly soul crushing.
I saw this in real life the other day. My day job does some photo restoration. Lady came in with a framed and matted photo that had a puncture. She wanted it repaired, but we don’t do that, only digital “repaints”.
Apparently she just COULD NOT allow her mother to learn she had damaged the photo. Against my warnings she tried to wiggle it out of the matting, and ended up creasing it and worsening the tear. It was a panic moment right out of a sitcom.
Dave: Selkie may be the Main Protagonist but gotta say, Te Fahn may be my favorite. Her open heart and searching intellect may make her the most endearing of your characters. Step aside Andi, yer not muh fav any more.
This strip is such a relief! Thanks for not doing that tired old cliche of dragging out the misery due to a characters refusing to listen or be honest. One thing that’s impressive about this comic is how despite the gills and scifi elements, it’s more realistic than some other works, at least in terms of human behavior. Kudos!
I just have to say that I love how the last few strips have focused on Selkie’s meddling in stuff that isn’t her business over her spending money that wasn’t hers. (Although the latter isn’t inconsiderable either; I just feel that the former is the more serious problem.)
Selkie is very smart and charismatic. Unfortunately, that means she sometimes feels like she knows what is “best” for others because she many think she is cleverer than they. (I had a touch of that type of egotism as a kid and see some burgeoning signs of it in my niece too.)
I really like that Dave is showing the consequences of Selkie’s meddling and her beginning to realize that it isn’t okay for her to interfere in other peoples’ lives without being asked, even when she really does think she knows better than others.
Intelligence never, ever, implied Wisdom. You can have a rediculously High IQ and still be “Dumb as a box of Rocks”. You could have trouble with basic arithmetic, but know how to deal with what Life throws at you.
Most of us, I think are content to find a happy balance between the two. 🙂
Ah that face of “I just now realized I did something incredibly stupid.”
I look after an older disabled gentleman. One morning while cooking up his breakfast, I cracked an egg into the sink and threw the shell into the mixing bowl (feel free to read that sentence over again to be sure) …and then about 1 second later it reached my sleepy brain WHAT my hands had done, but I had no clue WHY they had done it.
He said (between tears of laughter) that the look on my face in that moment was worth 100 wasted eggs!
Must have been; now every Saturday when I make him eggs, he leans in, watching for it… then laughs when I scowl at him.
Well, to expand on what the famous Red Green often says:
“If the can’t find you Handsome, they should at least find you Handy.” And my addition, “And if they can’t find you Handy, let them find you Hilariously Entertaining.” 🙂
I went *snerk* at the end of that myself. I really got to hand it to you for such great writing. It feels like I am reading about real people I care about and can relate to. Everyone has screwed up for all the right reasons and the wrong at times. You really catch the highs and lows of life. Just good job.
The road to hell…
Though that raises some interesting questions regarding the road to heaven!
Well, the maxim I learned was: Only a right thing done in a right way is right.
Wrong thing done in a wrong way is obviously wrong (although sometimes it can amusingly *cause* right things to happen).
Wrong thing done in a “right” way would be, I suppose, making sure you’re wearing a condom while you cheat on your wife?
Right thing done in a wrong way would be trying to raise money for the school by selling drugs.
So like, just because your intentions are pure doesn’t mean the action taken was appropriate, let alone that the outcome will be beneficial.
A similar principle: Does it DO good, or does it merely FEEL good?
A lot of people jump on bandwagons to “do something” about a perceived problem, without stopping to consider whether their effort is pragmatically useful — whether it will solve the problem they hope to solve, and whether it will create other problems that might be just as bad or even worse. Not to mention whether it’s the best solution (given certain constraints that must be accounted for), and whether it’s objectively better than just doing nothing.
(Selkie’s plan, here, was obviously worse than just doing nothing.)
Affirmative Action, for example, seems on the surface to be a good way of compensating for generations of problems that make Black citizens of the Unites States statistically less prepared to deal with higher-level learning. It “feels good” to give those poor guys a leg up, right?
But what it does is push unprepared Black students into courses they end up dropping out of, while penalizing Asian students for being much *better* prepared than the average American. The statistics paint an ugly picture: This policy is not DOING good. It is harming the people it claims to want to help.
Here’s an odd one: It seems fair that a person on welfare should not make more money than a person holding down a job. However, some of the stricter attempts to control this line end up disincentivizing getting a job in the first place. They unfairly penalize welfare recipients who attempt to better their situation — and that’s not even accounting for daycare and transportation costs. Getting back on your feed needs that buffer, even if it feels unfair.
Or how about the TSA? It’s laughable ineffective (when they test it, like 70-80% of contraband (including weapons) gets by them without getting caught), and meanwhile it’s terrorizing children, the elderly, women, and the disabled, while training Americans to basically just accept that they’re gonna get molested and there’s not much anyone can do about it. We’ve traded in freedom for Security Theater that is measurably worse than doing nothing at all — because we’re more concerned with how things LOOK than with actually doing a good job at stopping terrorist attacks.
If I were going to illustrate that “road to Hell is paved with good intentions” phrase, I’m pretty sure I’d use a photo of the TSA.
An astute examination, Kilyle. A negative times a negative is a positive, but numerically, not morally!
I recall the architect Robert Moses asking “if the end doesn’t justify the means, what does?” as though any end can justify cruel means- and indeed, his objective has proved environmentally costly. And the lofty aims of prohibition, with its consequences for organised crime.
And today, the limiting of rights in the name of security- just what you say of the TSA, though not uniquely to that organisation or your great country. Didn’t Madeleine L’Engle originally suggest that scenario as the origin of Camazotz?
(Did I make an incorrect assumption there? I think you’re of the USA?)
I think affirmative action a good means poorly administrated, rather than a bad means per se, but this takes nothing from your criticism.
There is a concept that was circulated about my school, that it’s good to do a good deed. But if you announce that you did it, you didn’t get credit. It had to be good — and anonymous. You were encouraged to write that you did a good deed, and post it on a bulletinboard – but not for whom you did it, nor how much it cost to do it. EG: student from a foreign country (was studying science in the USA to avoid a forced marriage) didn’t realize that bookstore kit of coloured pencils cost $16.00USD for an art class elective. Her scholarship covered text books — but not art paper nor incidentals? But she couldn’t drive somewhere to get others. (Was Before Amazon was a ‘thing’) So I bought them for her, and slid them under her dorm room door as a surprize.
She was baffled by how they got there! I never told.
That’s a nice idea! Matthew- “if you do a good deed, don’t trumpet it”.
Yeah, my Bible knowledge isn’t up to Chapter and Verse!
The TV show The Good Place also has an interesting take – motivation. If you only did that good thing to get into their version of Heaven or for, say, just trying to get good PR for yourself, it doesn’t count as a good act. It’s just selfishness disguised as good.
Long term effects also matter. Helping the homeless is good, right? But not when it spawns a multi-billion dollar industry and government agency that wants homelessness to persist because eradicating it means losing your job, as is the case in California right now, it’s no longer a good thing.
I must have a look at that show. I recall a philosophical argument that suggested that those who do good in expectation of heaven are really working in their self-interest, so don’t deserve heaven. The argument concluded that only atheists can be really good by heaven’s standards!
Um- I can’t think of the source- I thought it was from Jeremy Bentham, but an Internet search hasn’t turned it up. Dontcha hate that?
Take it even further (hello, Friends) – if doing good deeds makes you feel good and happy, that’s also selfish!
That sounds like Bentham too! You know, “utilitarianism”.
*snerk* is a better reaction than I was expecting. XD
Honesty is genuinely healing when injured parties are going “Hey, you are not normally this much off a butt-head what’s going on?”
Ah the power of communication and an honest and heartfelt apology.
This is why most drama’s tick me off, everything is stirred up because no one TALKS TO EACH OTHER!
That’s why I no longer watch DomComs. The number of episodes that can be summed up as either “dad is an idiot” or “everyone causes huge trouble to avoid mild embarrassment” is just truly soul crushing.
I saw this in real life the other day. My day job does some photo restoration. Lady came in with a framed and matted photo that had a puncture. She wanted it repaired, but we don’t do that, only digital “repaints”.
Apparently she just COULD NOT allow her mother to learn she had damaged the photo. Against my warnings she tried to wiggle it out of the matting, and ended up creasing it and worsening the tear. It was a panic moment right out of a sitcom.
Dave: Selkie may be the Main Protagonist but gotta say, Te Fahn may be my favorite. Her open heart and searching intellect may make her the most endearing of your characters. Step aside Andi, yer not muh fav any more.
Those reactions, though… priceless XD
This strip is such a relief! Thanks for not doing that tired old cliche of dragging out the misery due to a characters refusing to listen or be honest. One thing that’s impressive about this comic is how despite the gills and scifi elements, it’s more realistic than some other works, at least in terms of human behavior. Kudos!
I love how Georgie and Te Fahn are handling this.
I just have to say that I love how the last few strips have focused on Selkie’s meddling in stuff that isn’t her business over her spending money that wasn’t hers. (Although the latter isn’t inconsiderable either; I just feel that the former is the more serious problem.)
Selkie is very smart and charismatic. Unfortunately, that means she sometimes feels like she knows what is “best” for others because she many think she is cleverer than they. (I had a touch of that type of egotism as a kid and see some burgeoning signs of it in my niece too.)
I really like that Dave is showing the consequences of Selkie’s meddling and her beginning to realize that it isn’t okay for her to interfere in other peoples’ lives without being asked, even when she really does think she knows better than others.
Intelligence never, ever, implied Wisdom. You can have a rediculously High IQ and still be “Dumb as a box of Rocks”. You could have trouble with basic arithmetic, but know how to deal with what Life throws at you.
Most of us, I think are content to find a happy balance between the two. 🙂
Ah that face of “I just now realized I did something incredibly stupid.”
I look after an older disabled gentleman. One morning while cooking up his breakfast, I cracked an egg into the sink and threw the shell into the mixing bowl (feel free to read that sentence over again to be sure) …and then about 1 second later it reached my sleepy brain WHAT my hands had done, but I had no clue WHY they had done it.
He said (between tears of laughter) that the look on my face in that moment was worth 100 wasted eggs!
Must have been; now every Saturday when I make him eggs, he leans in, watching for it… then laughs when I scowl at him.
Well, to expand on what the famous Red Green often says:
“If the can’t find you Handsome, they should at least find you Handy.” And my addition, “And if they can’t find you Handy, let them find you Hilariously Entertaining.” 🙂
I went *snerk* at the end of that myself. I really got to hand it to you for such great writing. It feels like I am reading about real people I care about and can relate to. Everyone has screwed up for all the right reasons and the wrong at times. You really catch the highs and lows of life. Just good job.
Selkie, Selkie… Shouldn’t you already know that this is exactly how all cunnings and evils planss end – the evil mastermind looking like a doofus. 😀