Two things
If you were to avoid traditionally based morality in which a life is sacred and indivisible and plump instead for utilitarian thought and cost benefit analysis, you'd find some interesting things. This report notes that malaria costs some African countries around 1.3 GDP growth points per year. There is a strong relationship between malaria and poverty - tourists are reluctant to enter malarial areas; traders are unwilling to set up businesses; and farmers lean towards subsistence cropping because of the impact malaria has on labour.
But malaria can be treated, despite the disease's propensity to quickly mutate and overcome drugs. In terms of cost-benefit, it's been estimated that spending between $1 and $8 US will give a person a year of healthy life. Contrast that with the estimated $12 million it costs to keep a quadriplegic Westerner alive and supported for the twenty to thirty years they may live post-accident. For that amount, between 12 million and 1.5 million extra years of malaria-free life could be bestowed on Africans. The greatest good for the greatest number doesn't stretch well across borders.
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I find it increasingly hard to watch American television or talkshows or anything when Americans are exposed to television cameras. The ebullience; the euphoria and self-acclaim of being American, the inventors of self-help, the people who successfully captured the world's attention for fifty years and counting and who now believe their own hype.
What if it's this certainty, this cocksure extremism of the self, this hyper-individualism that is sponsoring the return of the churches? For if an American's life is worth far more than that of any other nationality, as the War on Islamic Countries tells us, then this valuation requires support and validation. You will have life after death - you're an individual. You're an American. Of course there's a point to your life. Read the amazing stories of the men and women who died and came back to life to tell us that our lives and our country do have meaning. Defend our country against all criticism. Seize on the promise of Christianity to make individual life take on meaning. Even Superman needs purpose. Superman needs immortality more than the nameless many. Many are called, but few are American.
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If you were to avoid traditionally based morality in which a life is sacred and indivisible and plump instead for utilitarian thought and cost benefit analysis, you'd find some interesting things. This report notes that malaria costs some African countries around 1.3 GDP growth points per year. There is a strong relationship between malaria and poverty - tourists are reluctant to enter malarial areas; traders are unwilling to set up businesses; and farmers lean towards subsistence cropping because of the impact malaria has on labour.
But malaria can be treated, despite the disease's propensity to quickly mutate and overcome drugs. In terms of cost-benefit, it's been estimated that spending between $1 and $8 US will give a person a year of healthy life. Contrast that with the estimated $12 million it costs to keep a quadriplegic Westerner alive and supported for the twenty to thirty years they may live post-accident. For that amount, between 12 million and 1.5 million extra years of malaria-free life could be bestowed on Africans. The greatest good for the greatest number doesn't stretch well across borders.
----
I find it increasingly hard to watch American television or talkshows or anything when Americans are exposed to television cameras. The ebullience; the euphoria and self-acclaim of being American, the inventors of self-help, the people who successfully captured the world's attention for fifty years and counting and who now believe their own hype.
What if it's this certainty, this cocksure extremism of the self, this hyper-individualism that is sponsoring the return of the churches? For if an American's life is worth far more than that of any other nationality, as the War on Islamic Countries tells us, then this valuation requires support and validation. You will have life after death - you're an individual. You're an American. Of course there's a point to your life. Read the amazing stories of the men and women who died and came back to life to tell us that our lives and our country do have meaning. Defend our country against all criticism. Seize on the promise of Christianity to make individual life take on meaning. Even Superman needs purpose. Superman needs immortality more than the nameless many. Many are called, but few are American.
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posted by Doug @ 4/11/2006 10:41:00 pm
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