“But there’s a serious point here: the shifting of an Overton window often happens gradually, and we readjust to its new range very quickly,9 so there is risk in allowing ourselves to do anything we know is bad just because we want to. In fact, even with good intentions and level heads, if we give in to our lesser instincts too often there’s a far more likely outcome than “we become black market weapons dealers.” It’s simply that we become selfish. We start to believe that our own “right” to do whatever we want, whenever we want to do it, is more important than anything else, and thus our sense of morality concerns only our own happiness or pain.”
― How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
― How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
“The amount of time something has been done is not, by itself, a good reason to keep doing it. By relying solely on precedent and failing to critically examine the problems that precedent might create for us, we’re basically just flipping the middle finger to the idea of progress, or finding ways to be better people.7 We’re actively not trying to be better, and worse, we’re seeing the not-trying as a virtue. This benefits no one.”
― How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
― How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
Leah’s 2025 Year in Books
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