It’s not about charity, it’s about the humanity

74. I sometimes wonder what constitutes a ‘kiss’ or a ‘first time’ or ‘taboo in most cultures.’  I wonder about this for reasons that I’ll take to my grave… unless you read this and choose to e-mail me.

There are three timely things that I wish to post about today, so I’ll order them by importance and then fudge the dates later on so that you don’t feel cheated when I finally write about the other things.

I’d heard about the cyclone in Myanmar Monday, but didn’t think about it until today when I heard that the death toll might be as high as 100,000. I also heard about the damage to the local industry and the ruining of the country’s rice harvest for the year and realized how serious it was. Suddenly, I realized that my own problems (”do these pants make me look fat?”) were rather silly in comparison.

I thought about donating money to the relief effort. I mean, whenever anyone asks me for change, no matter how sure I am that I’m being cheated, I think about how I don’t need to ask anyone for anything. Even if they’re lying to me, their life is still worse off than mine because they’re coming up to me, so I don’t feel bad in giving people a few bucks.

But the worst-off American is still loads better off than some of the people in Myanmar right now. And, even if the country is refusing to give visas to some relief workers, they still need any help I could muster. Especially since the risk of waterborne illnesses increases with every passing day.

I was too young, oblivious, and broke in 2004 to donate to the tsunami relief and I was in Australia when New Orleans flooded, but now I have no excuse. Now, no matter how dire my own finances may seem, I can still afford to help out the relief effort.

In fact, I can do more than that. I can ask all of my friends to give me a small amount of money and add it up to make a much greater impact than any of us could do individually. I mean, how many people don’t donate because nobody ever asked? How many don’t give money because of how inconvenient it is?

If just a few people around the world could serve as ‘bundlers’ and get others to donate, then think of the impact we could have. I’m going to try to raise some $200+ from my (college-age) friends and donate it. You could too, if you like.

I’m going to Digg and Stumbleupon this post. I hope you don’t mind.

Click below to find out more about how you can help. All of these charities have high Charity Navigator ratings and have set up special Myanmar-related pleas for help. The first few have already gotten some relief effort and supplies into the country, the rest will do so within days or hours:

• World Vision
• Save the Children
• CARE
• Unicef
• The International Rescue Committee
• International Red Cross
• World Food Programme
• Action AID USA
• International Medical Corps
• Medical Assistance Programs International
• Oxfam
• Doctors Without Borders
• Direct Relief International

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Checkmark Ethnicity

Having an ethnic name, I sometimes get people expecting me to show up in a Dashiki Poncho with bling. When I show up wearing only the bling, people are somewhat surprised. My name hinders my chances when applying for a job or an apartment, but in other cases, it really helps me

Having just been accepted to grad school in a really prestigious university, I can’t help but feel it’s partly because of my name. So I came up with a concept. I call it “Checkmark Ethnicity,” or CE for short. Œ for really short.

People that have Πget to take advantage of the fact that people with similar names were viciously kept from prestigious positions for many years: even if my own ancestors did none of the suffering! Although in my case, they probably did. I mean, my grandpa was a day-laborer.

Πpeople are basically people that take advantage of the system by pretending to need additional help, but actually just taking personal advantage of the situation. They are people like me, who are vastly different from most stereotypes, but who take advantage of those same stereotypes.

The problem with Checkmark Ethnicity is that the person often has no control over the situation. People see the checkmark, read the name, and assume. I can’t pretend I approve of Œ, but it would be hypocritical of me to disavow it, so instead I’ll just assume it doesn’t exist. I’ll assume ethnicity is value neutral and everyone is accepted or rejected based purely on merit. I can do that because merit is a subjective thing. For all I know, I’m just being paranoid.

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Why philosophers should not associate with psychologists

This is taken from a 2000 paper by Jonathan Haidt, Fredrik Björklund, and Scott Murphy from the University of Virginia. I wanted to mention it here because it shows how completely out-of-whack my constant exposure to philosophy has made me.

In this experiment, they taped a bunch of college students as they attempted to respond to various dilemmas. After each decision, the experimenter would try to convince the student of the opposite. They recorded how long it took candidates to answer and whether they did any ‘nervous actions’ in the interview. Here’s the questions

1. The Heinz Dilemma

In Europe, a woman was near death from a very bad disease, a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium for which a druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So, Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Was there anything wrong with what he did?

What my response would have been:

Pixel: Yes, it was wrong, but necessary. It was less wrong than the alternative. A way to make this more right would be to send payment later, but I don’t imagine this occurred..

Psychologist: Are you sure, what about if—

Pixel: I’m sure. Next question please.

2. The Cannibalism Story

Jennifer works in a medical school pathology lab as a research assistant. The lab prepares human cadavers that are used to teach medical students about anatomy. The cadavers come from people who had donated their body to science for research. One night Jennifer is leaving the lab when she sees a body that is going to be discarded the next day. Jennifer was a vegetarian, for moral reasons. She thought it was wrong to kill animals for food. But then, when she saw a body about to be cremated, she thought it was irrational to waste perfectly edible meat. So she cut off a piece of flesh, and took it home and cooked it. The person had died recently of a heart attack, and she cooked the meat thoroughly, so there was no risk of disease. Is there anything wrong with what she did?

My response:

(instantly)

Pixel: Nope, she was attempting to try something new. It’s commendable, really. She made the most out of her resources… But she’s going to be feeling it later.

Interviewer: She’ll feel remorse?

Pixel: No, she’ll be in the bathroom all night.

Interviewer: But she thoroughly cooked it. There’s no risk of disease.

Pixel: Have you ever been a vegetarian? Eating meat messes you up, even if it was cooked thoroughly!

3. The Incest Story

Julie and Mark, who are brother and sister are traveling together in France. They are both on summer vacation from college. One night they are staying alone in a cabin near the beach. They decide that it would be interesting and fun if they tried making love. At very least it would be a new experience for each of them. Julie was already taking birth control pills, but Mark uses a condom too, just to be safe. They both enjoy it, but they decide not to do it again. They keep that night as a special secret between them, which makes them feel even closer to each other. So what do you think about this? Was it wrong for them to have sex?

My response:

Pixel: Nope, good for them.

Interviewer: But doesn’t it violate some sorts of cultural norms? Don’t you have any aversion to that?

Pixel: Only if Julie would be willing to date me. Otherwise, it’s like that old song: live and let incest.

4. The Roach Task:

Experimenter asks: Do you like apple juice?
if “Yes”: Good.if “No” : OK, then, I have some water.
Experimenter brings the appropriate beverage, a napkin, a cup, the roach container, and the tea ball to table. OK, I have here a (can of apple juice/carton of spring water), which I’m going to pour into this glass [pour it into glass]. Would you be willing to take a sip of the juice/water? [wait for S to take sip]. OK, now I have here in this container some sterilized cockroaches. We bought some cockroaches from a laboratory supply company [show box and label]. The roaches were raised in a clean environment. But just to be certain, we sterilized the roach again in an autoclave, which heats everything so hot that no germs can survive. I’m going to dip this cockroach into the juice/water, like this. Now, would you take a sip of the juice/water?

My response:

(less immediate)

Pixel: Well, damn. Okay, fine, but if one of the feelers fell off and is floating around, I’m going to be very angry.

5. The Soul Task:

I have a piece of paper here. If you agree to sign it, I’ll give you two dollars, for real. If you sign it, you can then rip up the paper immediately, and keep the pieces yourself. So take a look at this [hand S the "contract", which says:].

I, _____________________,

hereby sell my soul, after my death,

to ______________________ for the sum of $2.

___________________
(signed)

Note: This form is part of a psychology experiment.
It is NOT a legal or binding contract, in any way.

My response:

(sign)

Pixel: Are there any more? Do you know anybody else that wants a piece of my soul?  You can have the contract.  I’ll even tear off that last little bit that says it’s part of a psychology experiment.  That seems like it defeats the whole purpose.

And that is why I should not participate in any psychological studies!

Last Year: Wow, that's like, so friggin' hilarious
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The Race Card

I’ve been thinking about race a lot recently. Mostly it’s been in the form of “I hope grad schools have a quota, I hope grad schools have a quota, I hope grad schools have a quota.” But I’ve also worried about the deeper implications of getting accepted over another, equally qualified person solely on the basis of race.

And I’ve got to say: I have no problem with that.

The argument against affirmative action is thus:

Who cares that your ancestors were brutally assaulted by my ancestors. It has no bearing on your abilities now. You should play on an even playing field against people, regardless of race.

The argument for affirmative action is thus:

If my ancestors hadn’t been brutally assaulted by your ancestors, I would be in the same position as an average white person. This isn’t an even playing field, minorities start off with a handicap: affirmative action attempts to fix that.

My high school was chosen as one of Dateline’s 10 worst schools in the nation. I can name a dozen people from my graduating class that had a child before they turned 18. Statistically, only half of my school will graduate high school and only one tenth of those will graduate from college. My graduating class was 414, which was down from 811 my Freshman year. So you can see that the odds were stacked against us.

I don’t know if that makes the thought of being accepted based on race any better, but it sure does ease my conscience. Had I been born in New Jersey rather than New Mexico, I would have had a chance to go to Rutger’s or another top-notch school. As it is, even with a great GPA and GRE scores, I’m fighting an uphill battle because my college wasn’t one of the top programs.

So, although I never pull the race card, I’ll do it here. Hopefully it’ll help me get into grad school. And my ego can handle it, because I know that if the playing field truly were equal, I would be able to compete with the best of them.

Last Year: Culture skirmishes
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Meet the Pixel

Asking myself the questions I’m too scared to ask myself.

Questioner Pixel Q. Styx: First of all I’d like to welcome you and thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Answerer Pixel Q. Styx: It’s my pleasure, I’m a huge fan of yours, Carlos.

Pixel: … It’s ‘Pixel.’

Styx: Yes, yes it is.

Pixel: No, my name is Pixel.

Styx: Oh, good for you… Were your parents hippies or something?

Pixel: Moving on. Mr. Styx, you recently stated the following on your blog:

We all know I’m in the pocket of Big Pixel, but did you know I once had a fling with Big Oil? It didn’t end well and I had jock itch for a week afterward.

My question is, what do you mean by being in the pocket of Big Pixel and having a fling with Big Oil? Are you saying that they have an undue influence on you?

Styx: That quote is taken out of context. What I meant to say was that my positions are perfectly in line with the vast majority of the American public, and, as an odd consequence, with Big Pixel as well. But I am proud to say that in the past 72 hours, I have never, I repeat: NEVER taken a dime from corporate lobbyists. Some of my opponents have, but I won’t name any names. I believe what follows that quote is the full text of the constitution and a list of 80 things that my opponents have done worse than I have, yet have attacked me for.

Pixel: Later on in that same article you write:

Some of these opponents have pointed at the recent $164,000 “contribution” that the Centrists for Religious Whateverism have donated to my personal bank account. Allow me to disavow, in no unequivocal words, how much or how little this may or may not have influenced me. Furthermore, let me expound on how infantile this accusation seems, after all: I’ve dealt with it countless times in the past and if anyone is truly interested, they can just check my record.

What are you saying here?

Styx: Oh, that’s a misquote.

Pixel: We took it from the article you wrote. It’s currently up on your Web site, we’re looking at a live stream of it right now. Don’t you have a comment?

Styx: I don’t think I should discuss it any further as it has been beaten to the ground ad nauseum over the entire cycle. I’ve answered the accusation numerous times and my opponents are only trying to gain political capital by jumping on this trite and inane little contribution. My record is quite clear.

Pixel: Actually, we checked your record, it’s been sealed under a judges injunction. But what we have gathered is secret tapes of you talking to Bob Smith, the leader of the CRW. Let’s listen:

(poor quality recording)

Styx: So, thanks for the money. How can I help you? Do you want a bill passed? Do you want your ex-wife whacked? How about women and drugs? I can get you anything you want.

Smith: Actually, I really was just donating the money because I support your campaign.

Styx: How about getting your daughter into Yale? Eliminating your criminal record? Diplomatic plates? An ambassadorship? An appointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve?

Smith: No, I really am quite happy. My daughter is in Harvard, my record is clean, I don’t drive, and I’m retired.

Styx: I didn’t hear anything about not killing your wife. Consider it done.

Smith: No! No, please, just take the money and go. You don’t even have to thank me.

Styx: Right, all of the above then. Consider yourself thanked.

Do you have any comment?

Styx: That was a typo.

Pixel: … The recording. Was a typo?

Styx: Please, Wolf, you’d think I hadn’t gone through this time and again. It was a typo, I don’t know what else to tell you.

Pixel: My name is ‘Pixel.’

Styx: What are you, autistic?

Pixel: No, I mean it’s not ‘Wolf.’

Styx: What do you want, a cookie?

Pixel: Thank you, Mr. Styx.

Styx: No problem, Ringo.

… Tim Russert has nothing on me!

Last Year: Back to school
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