Halftime
It’s halftime in today’s Steeler-Ravens game and it looks bad for the boys from the Burgh. They’re down 17-zip, but it’s not even that close; they’re getting beat on both sides of the ball; it will be truly amazing should they come back in the third quarter.
But, of course, there are far more important things to care about; today’s paper has chilling accounts of violence in Iraq, Sudan, Bahrein, stories of poisonings and shootings, editorials on racism, rape, economic strife in the US and abroad, and photos illustrating pain and misery far exceeding anything I could feel should the Steelers fail to come back and win today—or even ever again.
I keep saying this, but I have a hard time feeling it; I know that the suffering of a single child in Darfur is of greater consequence than even a Superbowl victory, and yet, here I am, pounding the table as the Ravens threaten to expand their lead in a game that, in all reality, is essentially meaningless.
One of the standard complaints about the moral philosophy known as Utilitarianism is that it sets the bar for ethical obligation too high: if our moral mandate is to maximize overall happiness, then it would seem that we ought never to go to the movies or just hang out when we could be making the world a better place.
My intuition that there’s something amiss about being more exercised by the Steelers losing than by civil war in Iraq is informed by the Utilitarian impulse: I should be doing something better for my fellow human beings than simply sitting here, grinding my teeth as Roesthlisberger gets flushed from pocket once again.
If they lose today, though—which is looking more likely as Baltimore has scored again—I may finally be free; I probably won’t devote my Sundays to saving the world, but at least I’ll have more important things to feel bad about than Pittsburgh’s losing record.
But, of course, there are far more important things to care about; today’s paper has chilling accounts of violence in Iraq, Sudan, Bahrein, stories of poisonings and shootings, editorials on racism, rape, economic strife in the US and abroad, and photos illustrating pain and misery far exceeding anything I could feel should the Steelers fail to come back and win today—or even ever again.
I keep saying this, but I have a hard time feeling it; I know that the suffering of a single child in Darfur is of greater consequence than even a Superbowl victory, and yet, here I am, pounding the table as the Ravens threaten to expand their lead in a game that, in all reality, is essentially meaningless.
One of the standard complaints about the moral philosophy known as Utilitarianism is that it sets the bar for ethical obligation too high: if our moral mandate is to maximize overall happiness, then it would seem that we ought never to go to the movies or just hang out when we could be making the world a better place.
My intuition that there’s something amiss about being more exercised by the Steelers losing than by civil war in Iraq is informed by the Utilitarian impulse: I should be doing something better for my fellow human beings than simply sitting here, grinding my teeth as Roesthlisberger gets flushed from pocket once again.
If they lose today, though—which is looking more likely as Baltimore has scored again—I may finally be free; I probably won’t devote my Sundays to saving the world, but at least I’ll have more important things to feel bad about than Pittsburgh’s losing record.
posted by Professor Dave at 12:21 PM
1 Comments:
Moral high ground or not, most folks in Darfur feel better than Rothlesberger does tonight. Even in your early twenties and richer than ca-ca, that has to hurt.
Coyote
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