“I should do X” sometimes means something a lot closer to “I have an obligation to do X” rather than “I want to do X and am willing to pay the costs associated with doing so”...
One obvious avenue of power over others is convincing them that morality is obedience and obligation to some external authority, with either direct or indirect assumption of that authority. For some, this turns morality into a tie and a fetter to be resisted, instead of an avenue for satisfaction of some of their own preferences—their moral preferences.
But some others are looking for an external authority, and relieved and grateful when they find one.
Amusing scene from The Avengers: Loki: [to crowd]
Kneel before me. I said… KNEEL! Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation.
Compare to George Bush, West Point Speech 2002
No people on earth yearn to be oppressed, aspire to servitude,...
My money is on Loki.
The real funny part is that in searching for this quote, I got it from a Christian blog:
Jesus doesn’t rule like that. His yoke is gentle. His ruling activity in our lives is like nothing else we’ve ever experienced. Being Jesus’ servant really is freedom …
We really were made to be ruled — but not by Loki. Not by men like him. We were created to be ruled by God — and his leadership is unlike any we’ve ever experienced on this earth. It’s a good thing. His leadership truly is freedom.
And I will bow to that!
Arbeit macht frei! Which apparently ties in quite nicely.
La Wik:
In “The Kingdom of Auschwitz”, Otto Friedrich wrote regarding Höss [ed. Commandant of Auschwitz]: He seems not to have intended it as a mockery, nor even to have intended it literally, as a false promise that those who worked to exhaustion would eventually be released, but rather as a kind of mystical declaration that self-sacrifice in the form of endless labour does in itself bring a kind of spiritual freedom.
Indeed, there is. I don’t like this particular way of removing the word “should” since it seems to ignore the unspoken “negative” bit, but I’ve played around with a similar exercise of removing “should” from my vocabulary so that I would have to speak the unspoken bit.
Constantly doing things that you don’t want to do isn’t a fun way to go through life. It’s not effective at making good decisions either. The “I “should”/”have to” do this thing that I don’t want to” frame presupposes that the alternative is realistic enough to yearn for but you’re not doing anything about it!. If it’s realistic, do something about it. If it isn’t, shut up and be content. Shit or get off the pot.
I can make any choice available to me. My actions have consequences though, and I can’t fulfill all of my desires. Of my choices, which do I want? Of course I can eat healthy, but that means I can’t eat junk food. If I have to consciously force myself to be excited about eating healthy, maybe it’s because I like junk food and I’m not thrilled about giving it up.
Once I can verbalize that unspoken wish to eat junk food and eat healthy, then I can make my choice and feel like I’m doing what I want to do (without “will power” or nagging thoughts).
So that’s why/how I try to minimize my use of “should”. Of course, it takes a bit of time and so for trivial matters I just shrug it off and say “opportunity cost”
Sometimes you would do the same thing anyway if it weren’t an obligation. If that is the case, it’s much more useful to focus on the fact that you want to do that, because obligations carry a negative connotation.
In fact, I think focusing on the ‘should’ may sometimes create the ‘… but I don’t want to’ AndekN mentions above, or at least reinforces it.
“I should do X” sometimes means something a lot closer to “I have an obligation to do X” rather than “I want to do X and am willing to pay the costs associated with doing so”...
Exactly. I think almost every “should” statement includes an unspoken ”...but I don’t want to” in the end.
For some more than others.
One obvious avenue of power over others is convincing them that morality is obedience and obligation to some external authority, with either direct or indirect assumption of that authority. For some, this turns morality into a tie and a fetter to be resisted, instead of an avenue for satisfaction of some of their own preferences—their moral preferences.
But some others are looking for an external authority, and relieved and grateful when they find one.
Amusing scene from The Avengers:
Loki: [to crowd]
Compare to George Bush, West Point Speech 2002
My money is on Loki.
The real funny part is that in searching for this quote, I got it from a Christian blog:
Arbeit macht frei! Which apparently ties in quite nicely.
La Wik:
Indeed, there is. I don’t like this particular way of removing the word “should” since it seems to ignore the unspoken “negative” bit, but I’ve played around with a similar exercise of removing “should” from my vocabulary so that I would have to speak the unspoken bit.
Constantly doing things that you don’t want to do isn’t a fun way to go through life. It’s not effective at making good decisions either. The “I “should”/”have to” do this thing that I don’t want to” frame presupposes that the alternative is realistic enough to yearn for but you’re not doing anything about it!. If it’s realistic, do something about it. If it isn’t, shut up and be content. Shit or get off the pot.
I can make any choice available to me. My actions have consequences though, and I can’t fulfill all of my desires. Of my choices, which do I want? Of course I can eat healthy, but that means I can’t eat junk food. If I have to consciously force myself to be excited about eating healthy, maybe it’s because I like junk food and I’m not thrilled about giving it up.
Once I can verbalize that unspoken wish to eat junk food and eat healthy, then I can make my choice and feel like I’m doing what I want to do (without “will power” or nagging thoughts).
So that’s why/how I try to minimize my use of “should”. Of course, it takes a bit of time and so for trivial matters I just shrug it off and say “opportunity cost”
The etymology of “should” includes variations on owe/guilt/debt—obligations.
Sometimes you would do the same thing anyway if it weren’t an obligation. If that is the case, it’s much more useful to focus on the fact that you want to do that, because obligations carry a negative connotation. In fact, I think focusing on the ‘should’ may sometimes create the ‘… but I don’t want to’ AndekN mentions above, or at least reinforces it.