I Do What I Want!!!

I have been known to say the above statement quite often. The purpose of this blog is to explain why-- so if that doesn't interest you, you might as well just move right along. For anyone who is planning to venture ahead into the thoughts and ideas of Chris Casler, be warned; the journey is likely to become overly philosophical and possibly nonsensical, and it will definitely be reminiscent of Ayn Rand.

First of all, this all stems from some discussions in Philosophy class in college, and reading a ton of books (mostly Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein). The concepts of duty, responsibility, sacrifice, selfishness, and morals are all involved with my little mantra. Oh yes, they all came out to play. So here's how it is in my book: I think it is morally right to make yourself happy. Now this simple statement can be complicated exponentially by pointing out that what makes some happy does not make all happy. And, what makes some happy will always make at least one person unhappy. So where do I draw the line?

I'm trying not to lead into a rabbit trail but I'm going to a little bit here. I personally draw the line when one person's actions are harming someone else. This harm could be physical, emotional, or economical. However, any system like that is going to be taken advantage of by whiners and looters, which is a topic for a different day.

So, please accept that I think it is morally right to make yourself happy, but there are certain responsibilities everyone has. These responsibilities arise from the possible consequences making yourself happy could have on the rest of society. There's a logical cause-effect chain. I think this is the main difference between a responsibility and a duty. A duty has no cause. Semantics aside, duty as I am using it here is when someone feels the need to take some action that does not make them happy, simply because they feel some societal necessity. Allow me to illustrate through use of a few examples:

A) A person(a) in the military call out another military member(b) for having a wrinkled shirt.
-Well (a) did this for (most likely) one of two reasons. Either they felt some duty driven need to call them out just because "that's what we do" or they did so because they were protecting their happiness. By this I mean maybe they take pride in their uniform, so (b) was harming that happiness. Or maybe (a) doesn't like seeing people get in trouble so they thought they were saving (b) some trouble. In the end, that is still looking after the happiness of (a) since they are stopping something that makes them unhappy.

B) Someone spends $1000 on a Coach purse.
-In this case, the person may just really like purses, thus they are making themselves happy. Maybe they collect purses, or even wanted it as a status symbol. Maybe they wanted it because they want to feel like a celebrity. All these things are motivated by a personal desire to provide for their own happiness. Now let's say they felt a "duty" to get the purse because everyone else in the neighborhood already had one. In this case, they wouldn't feel good about spending the money for it, or owning it, but they would feel a strong need to be seen with it. You could replace purse with tattoo or Christmas lights, or anything really.

Again, I want to stress this is all my own personal philosophy, and I am not trying to dictate as the Truth with a capital T. I think that people tend to think these "duties" make them good people, respectable people, or powerful people. In my book, doing anything for other than selfish reasons is probably not a good idea. That sounds bad, but think about it. If Mattson Mattson got in some trouble and needed cash quick, and he called me and said "hey! I need $10,000 you better sell your call and help me out or I'm going to be in some trouble!" I would do it in a second. It may not seem like that's selfish, but I am still looking after my own happiness. Personally, I kinda like Matt and I want to keep him out of trouble, so its going to make me happy in the end. Others may like to help people or may have any number of reasons that make them happy. The thing is, I would never consider that a duty, or a sacrifice for my friend. If I care about someone, then their well-being is what makes me happy. Therefore (cause-effect) it can be my responsibility. The point is, I've got a reason. That's why I do what I want all the time, because doing what I want means I have reasons behind my actions, and I (try to) never act based solely on what I think I "should" be doing (i.e. duty). I guess the ironic thing is that whatever the mentality, the action is usually the same. I just think that looking at it as I do is what keeps a smile on my face day in and day out-- because everything I do, I do to make my life better, or keep it good!

I really don't know if this all makes sense to anyone except me, so please comments and let me know what you think if you made it through that mess.