It’s almost comforting that such invidious fluffy-minded sludge as this is floating around, as it seems, like religion, to keep the middle-brows hypnotized by “beautiful sentiments” which are so vague as to keep them from actually getting together and doing anything. It’s sort of weird to hear this weakly Marxist social-democratic pap which used to be shouted from the rooftops now being whispered in a low monotonous whine. The author avows his fealty to Jeremy Bentham, not Marx, and calls it utilitarianism not Marxism, but there are many illegitimate fathers along this line of thought.

The root of the idea is that, now that neuroscience has supposedly made it possible to actually identify what makes us happy, the idea of happiness has become quantifiable, and hence a program of providing the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people has become objectively possible. However, the author does not make the slightest effort to apply these wonders of modern science to actually determining what the alleged sources of human happiness are. The neuroscience tack is really just a defensive ploy to ward off the eternal charges that utilitarinism is simply a euphemism for an authoritarian imposition of values. As for espousing his positive program for what constitutes human happiness, it is simply the usual liberal middle-class canards, with not surprisingly a socialist edge: more time to spend with family, a decent wage for everyone, blah blah blah. But he seems to make two pretty criminally unsubstantiated assumptions: one is these sources are essentially the same for everyone, or at least could be under certain conditions, and the other is that they do not inherently conflict with anyone else’s.

I say under certain conditions could be, because in evaluating our current society he seems to privilege envy of other’s material well-being as the principal determinant of happiness. His theory is that above a certain level of material subsistence people are motivated primarily by status-seeking and the desire for a high rank within their social group. Therefore, the increasing wealth of the society will not increase happiness because people measure their well-being relative to the group, not by their absolute prosperity. This is always been a flaw in the concept of the “war against poverty”; I’m not sure it’s much of an argument for socialist economic redistribution. But actually if you read his section on the value of income taxes carefully, he doesn’t even seem to be arguing that they are useful insofar as they can be redirected to the less prosperous, although he does evidently believe that a certain amount of money contributes more to the happiness of a poor person than to a rich one’s. Rather, he seems to think that taking money away from the properous is valuable in and of itself, because it will supposedly make them less focused on the “rat race,” more family-oriented, etc., etc. In short he seems to be advocating a net impoverishment of society.

All of which may be consistent with the program of a good little socialist, but does not necessarily accord marvelously with his own evidence about the supposedly quantified happiness of humanity. The research that he cites non-specifically supposedly indicates that people’s feeling of happiness has not risen in the last half-century, but he does not cite anything which indicates that it has necessarily declined. He cites rising rates of depression and crime as presumably implicit indicators of greater unhappiness, but he does not seem to acknowledge the possibility that in our hyper-medicated and surveillance-based society perhaps people simply report depression and crime more. In any event, if roughly similar numbers of people today as in the ‘50’s report themselves happy (and we believe them), despite the increase in prosperity, that might perhaps indicate that happiness is not fixed to material well-being. Which may be consistent with his general point, but not with his idea of increasing happiness by manipulating income levels.

And even if it did, it seems rather difficult to countenance any social program predicated upon appealing to one of humanity’s most depraved instincts, namely envy. The author acknowledges that his ideal of taxation is mainly motivated by the desire to pander to people’s envy, but he seems to think that their envy will be sated by the loss of prosperity of those around them and that after that point there will be no more. So the envy of the less prosperous will be satisfied by the losses accrued by the more prosperous, which will somehow not be counter-balanced by the chagrin of the more prosperous at the prospect of seeing their status diminished. Very logical.

One of the more egregious presumptions of utilitarians is that non-utilitarian social systems somehow aren’t concerned with seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of people. On the contrary, that’s the defining problem of practically every social and political theory I can think of, and they all either seek or claim to have found the answer—whether such a solution exists, I have my doubts, but that’s why I’m a skeptic about politics. This is a handy trick by utilitarians: they say “I believe in the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” Which is practically begging the question: “As opposed to whom?” It’s useful because it tends to conceal the fact that their real agenda is generally somewhat more specific, and tends to consist in the autocratic notion that one or two measures of social living can be authoritatively determined to be the sources of happiness, and then divided up in a centralized fashion. Those that are the most insistent on the idea of liberty are generally those that are the most skeptical about the possibility of the notion of happiness being either quantitatively defined or generalizable. In other words, only indviduals can determine their own sources of happiness.

For the author, on the other hand, the fact that certain stimuli trigger certain areas of the brain at the times when test subjects profess pleasure has solved the problem of determining happiness. Of course, as mentioned, he never really bothers with the results that those studies have yielded. Somehow the fact that he considers envy to be a principal element of human happiness does not place very severe limits on the harmoniousness of individual happiness. Nor does it constitute a tyranny of the majority, because he claims that in an ideal utilitarian society the happiness of the most unhappy would be considered of pre-eminent importance. Of course, at the beginning of the article he cited the equal importance of each individual’s happiness as the fouding tenet of his theory, but I’m sure it all sorts out in the end.

Among social factors responsible for unhappiness, he cites divorce and unemployment as of pre-eminent importance. Of course, rates of both divorce and unemployment in the crassly materialistic and religious United States are much lower than in the much more overtly utilitarian-embracing Europe, but it would be a bit embarassing for him to admit this after avowing that all traditional value-systems outside of utilitarianism and “individualism” are dead.

Personally the question of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people doesn’t exactly compel me constantly, although the issue of personal happiness tends to impose itself intransigently. I would have thought that evolutionary biology would have provided an adequate explanation of this, as well as the recurrence of what we call altruism. But such an idea of course suggests that happiness, whatever that is, is not really the point of our little existences, and that the more imperious competitiveness of life will ultimately subvert all of these little trifles of pleasure and pain. But in the meantime, we have these debased statistical notions of happiness to amuse us in an idle hour.

It seems to me that if one’s “objective” measure of happiness is electrical stimulation in the cerebral cortex, the most efficient utilitarian solution to the problem of human happiness would be strap everyone onto hospital gurneys and stimulate the “happiness” part of their brain all day long. If one does not wish to be this deterministic about it, perhaps one should allow more latitute to individuals to discover their own conception of happiness. Personally, I have found happiness generally to be an idea for the unhappy and something rarely spoken of by the happiness; mention of practically guarantees that it is not present in the environment where it is uttered. I don’t deny that what you might call love is the real bridge between personal happiness and moral obligations, and the only true means by which the desires of oneself and of others are united, but such a sentiment can never be mandated; it is entirely resistant to intellectual compulsion. Utilitarianism, which sometimes does a decent job of faking morality, is nevertheless ultimately predicated on the pleasure principle, and hence is wholly inadequate to uniting the moral and the pleasurable except when love truly pertains. In that case, of course, political theory is entirely superfluous, which is why this is all a waste of time.

p.s. I don’t claim that people’s behavior necessarily reflects what really would make them happy, but presumably it does at least reflect what they consciously value. Hence, if I were the author I would have been a bit skeptical of using the results of “surveys” of what people claim to value when the results don’t correlate with their behavior, i.e. they claim that spending time with family is most important, but they spend a disproportiante amount of time working (at least according to him). So either people are not really being forthright (consciously or unconsciously) in responding to surveys, or there is not actually a problem of priorities. In either case, he’s way over-valuing surveys as a guide to what will make people happy.

Thousands of people queued up in the city of Geelong, south of Melbourne in Australia, to catch a glimpse of what's once-in-a-decade occurrence -- the blooming 'corpse flower'.

Thousands of people queued up in the city of Geelong, south of Melbourne in Australia, to catch a glimpse of what's once-in-a-decade occurrence -- the blooming 'corpse flower'.

Forget videos by gamers or influencers. For a real online thrill, watch the world's biggest flower emerging in a former web designer's greenhouse, says Annalee Newitz

Kelley watches DVDs like a caveman. Josh chews on all the expensive things. Meanwhile, Chris stands by some barrels.

The post RPG Cast – Episode 609: “Throwing Corpses at the Door Till You Let Me In” appeared first on RPGamer.

WIRED explores the inner workings of The Resomator, a machine that uses alkaline hydrolysis to dissolve bodies, a cleaner and more humane method than cremation.

Do cats really eat us after we die? It's a surprisingly common concern among cat owners but is there evidence to back it up? WIRED's Wendi Jonassen sits down with cat behavior specialist Dr. Mikel Delgado to discuss just why on Earth cats may eat their deceased owners.

It is unclear how the corpse was driven from Lagos, through other states, to Akwa Ibom despite a ban on inter-state transportation.

The post Coronavirus: Akwa Ibom seizes corpse ‘smuggled’ into state from Lagos appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.

If the ‘Bill on Protection against Infectious Diseases 2020’ presently in the Senate is signed into law, anyone found transporting a corpse of someone who died of infectious disease would pay a fine of N2 million.

The post Senate bill proposes N2m fine for transporting corpse without permit appeared first on Vanguard News.

The Ogun State Ministry of Health has reacted to a viral video circulating in the social media about a corpse claimed to be a victim of COVID-19 at its Primary Health Center (PHC), Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta on Friday, May 9, 2020. The Hon. Commissioner for Health, Ogun State, Dr. Tomi Coker, in a statement said that the
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The post Ogun Ministry of Health reacts to viral video of corpse claimed to be COVID-19 victim at its PHC appeared first on Vanguard News.

[This Day] Akure -The Ondo State Government yesterday asked all residents that have deceased relations in all government mortuaries in the state to claim and burry them within one month or it would conduct mass burial for the corpses after the ultimatum.

A hybrid that would be cold-hardy and suitable for outdoor planting may be available for home landscapes in a few years.

The present invention relates to a method to improve the appearance of a corpse by means of the application of specific thanatocosmetic compositions. The invention also relates to the new compositions and to their use in thanato-aesthetics.

The murder may have happened outside the city.

Anthony Portis is accused of killing of 22-year-old Dominique Ben-David inside their home on E. 187th St. near Belmont Ave. Her body was discovered on April 11.

(American Chemical Society) When a dead body is found, one of the first things a forensic pathologist tries to do is estimate the time of death. There are several ways to do this, including measuring body temperature or observing insect activity, but these methods don't always work for corpses found in water. Now, researchers are reporting a mouse study in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research showing that certain proteins in bones could be used for this determination.

By Harris Emanuel – Uyo A corpse allegedly smuggled into Akwa Ibom state from Lagos State was at the weekend intercepted and buried by the state COVID-19 regulations enforcement team. The corpse intercepted from Lagos was buried in accordance with the protocol for the burial of an infected corpse while the persons who transported the
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The post COVID-19: Akwa Ibom intercepts corpse smuggled from Lagos, quarantines 6 collaborators appeared first on Vanguard News.

Dayo Johnson – Akure All the unclaimed and unburied corpses in Ondo government morgues across the State would be given mass burial in the next one month. Health commissioner Dr. Wahab Adegbenro said this in a statement issued by his Press Office Abooluwa Famakinwa in Akure. Adegbenro has therefore called on relations of the deceased
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The post Unclaimed corpses in Ondo government morgues to be given mass burial — Akeredolu appeared first on Vanguard News.

The Ondo State Government has given a month ultimatum for concern residents of the state to evacuate the corpses of their loved ones from morgues operated by the government for decent burial or risk being given mass burial. The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Wahab Adegbenro, who disclosed this on Saturday, stated that the move […]

Mortuary congestion: Ondo threatens mass burial for corpses, gives 30-day ultimatum

Previously unknown species in a relatively undisturbed bioregion of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia have been uncovered by a recent study — 24 in total, including a so-called "corpse

MasterChef judge George Calombaris sure loves his food. 

The Hollywood actor (pictured centre leaving court) is suing the publishers of The Sun and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article which alleged he had been abusive to his former wife.

The body of a 40-year-old woman from Masaliya block area of the district is lying in a local morgue since May 3, as local authorities are yet to get reports of her swab samples.

Hayden Library - RA452.M6 W43 2019