This is a wonderful passage in Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD
An official of the Ming empire reported that the Buddhists in his province had shown great zeal for building bridges. This was a public venture of which any traditional Chinese gentleman was bound to approve.
“In many ways, I actually think the real idea of #OpenSource is for it to allow everybody to be ‘selfish,’ not about trying to get everybody to contribute to some common good.
“In other words, I do not see open source as some big goody-goody ‘let's all sing kumbaya around the campfire and make the world a better place.’ No, open source only really works if everybody is contributing for their own #selfish reasons.”
If you believe that service to others is the ultimate good but choose selfishness because it works better, i.e., #pragmatism, then your #ethics are at war with reality. And you don’t even get the benefit of feeling good about yourself because that’s #selfish.
@sqncs. "According to SkyRail, the contractor responsible for the monorail option’s bid, 400,000 people travel the 405 each weekday, whereas the population of Bel-Air is about 8,000." Plus those of who will benefit from getting more cars off the road and getting cleaner air. So many thoughts about the #selfishness of #Rosen and his cohort. Creating #public transit will also help those of us who, as we age, can't drive and want to use #Metro. Also, how dare he invoke #DylanThomas?
“While Harriet Beecher Stowe shamed Americans about the United States’ dehumanization of African Americans & slavery, Ayn Rand removed Americans’ guilt for being selfish & uncaring about anyone except themselves. Not only did Rand make it ‘moral’ for the wealthy not to pay their fair share of taxes, she ‘liberated’ millions of other Americans from caring about the suffering of others, even the suffering of their own children.”
What is Australia's fair share when it comes to financing the necessary climate transition?
In a headline today, the Australian government has pledged AU$150m in #ClimateFinance for Pacific nations.
Good news, right? Isn't this PM Anthony #Albanese "ending the #ClimateWars" by actually doing what #Australia ought to have done years ago? Let's consider that assumption.
Back in 2009 at the much hyped, but ultimately deeply disappointing international climate negotiations in #Copenhagen known as #COP15, one step forward that was agreed, even as more comprehensive or ambitious agreements slipped away was that the wealthy nations of the world (including #Australia) collectively pledged to be providing US$100b each year to help the poorer nations transition away from #FossilFuels (#ClimateMitigation) and develop in ways that help societies adapt to the warming that cannot be mitigated (#ClimateAdaptation).
1/8
When the #GreenClimateFund was being established, Australia's Prime Minister was #TonyAbbott, a #ClimateDenier, who had won the 2013 federal election promising to dismantle the baby steps towards a #ClimatePolicy the previous #Labor government had made.
So there was little surprise when PM Abbott announced in Nov 2013 that #Australia would be contributing a massive sum of $0 to the Green Climate Fund.
At the time, he claimed Australia would chip in AU$200m (then =USD$187m) over four years, but since this was merely a rebranding of existing #ForeignAid, it clearly didn't count as "new and additional funding", a fact that most journalists blithely ignored, falling for the bait-and-switch. Or we might say instead that the Australian government was overstating its foreign aid commitments by $200m over those years.
Nonetheless, the four years were soon gone, as was Tony Abbott, as well as his successor #MalcolmTurnbull, who in turn had been replaced as PM by #ScottMorrison. When it came time to pledge again in 2018, Morrison announced Australia would be pulling out of the Green Climate Fund entirely, a path also taken by the #Trump administration at the time, whom Morrison was often cribbing notes from when it came to what kinds of #cruelty and #selfishness he could get away with.
5/8
There's enough money for Sunak to helicopter everywhere at our expense. There was enough money for Truss to spend £1300 on one lunch. There's enough money for subsidising MPs food, accommodation and ludicrous expenses claims ( duck palace? Heated stables?) no matter how much that costs.
But repairing schools to make them safe for our children? Soz. No way. #ToriesUnfitToGovern#Greed#selfishness