The Wordsmith's Forge

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Birdfeeding
Eloquent Souls Landing Page
Birdfeeding
Remembering the Vietnam War
Philosophical Questions: Self-Worth
Today's Smoothie
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday: The Valentines Edition
Birdfeeding
Coping Skills: Caffeine
Inclusivity at Work
Birdfeeding
Hard Things


There will be a bonus fishbowl on Tuesday, February 15 featuring Eloquent Souls. Please mark your calendars, and I hope to see you then.


Voting is open for the 2022 Rose and Bay Awards, and will run to the end of February. Please visit crowdfunding to vote for your favorite projects and patrons from 2021.
These are the handlers for the 2022 award season:

Art: fuzzyred Nominate art! Vote for art!
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Poetry in Microfunding:

There is one open epic at present.

"Rainshadow Road" belongs the Daughters of the Apocalypse series. People talk about the End.


The weather has been cold here. It snowed a few flakes yesterday.  Much of the older snow has melted off, leaving hunks of refrozen ice.  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of sparrows, a large flock of mourning doves, several pairs of cardinals, a pair of house finches, and four fox squirrels plus Bob later in the same day. They were eating heavily with snow covering the ground, so I put out extra food; it was tapering off later in the week.

This article talks about the value of human life. 

It missed a few things.

* To a significant extent, intrinsic worth is instinctive.  Human bonding is a need for most people, and it inclines them to think that at least some others are valuable.  Not every individual feels it, but a majority do; not every society respects it, but most go a fair way in that direction.  Even people and cultures that think it's okay to kill some people usually think it's not okay to kill others.  Because it's close to universal, we know that it's not simply getting passed around -- it manifests in societies that had no contact with each other until rather recently.

* Now flip it around and ask what would happen if we didn't  value human life.  That way lies a shithole society.  Most people don't want to live in a shithole society.  I mean, look at China, where they do  carve up live people who are't valued and sell their organs to the highest bidder.  Most people don't find that appealing.  So a big reason for valuing human life is simply that it makes a much nicer environment for everyone, and the lack of it really undermines civilization.

* The more people value human life, the better their society tends to get.  They want to do things like eradicate hunger and poverty, make sure everyone has a place to live, provide education leading to meaningful work, etc.  A society that really values all people is a pretty awesome place.

So the value has both emotional and practical benefits.  That inclines it to spread.  Selfishness is always there too, but it's got a lot shorter fuse with a lot of drawbacks.  Intrinsic worth supports the long haul.