Visit the Effective Altruism website and spend some time looking around. Notice how you react to the website.
After looking around on the Effective Altruism website, it looks like what I would have expected it to be. They have many examples and facts about what good donating money can do. This relates to their ideology that you should give as much money as you can to their cause. All of their information on their website is very specific and targeted towards being as effective as you can with the good you can do. This website obviously portrays EA in the best light possible compared to Southan’s essay. We are getting the same information but rather than hearing it straightforward, the website is putting the focus on all of the good this is doing and using their facts to back it up. They wouldn’t put on the website the idea of replaceability because that would be disheartening to their cause. People would see that it’s a competition and that would take away from the message that they are trying to put out there about the effectiveness of compassion.
Is art a waste of time? Discuss any art (books, music, movies, paintings and/or influential “arty” person in your life) that has had an impact or influence on you (good or bad!). Explore what your life might look like if you woke up tomorrow and all of the aforementioned art was gone. What would you do with your ‘free’ time? What would you listen to, if there were no more music? As someone who is headed into a “helping profession,” how does that chosen vocation fair with the ideals and principles of the Effective Altruism folks? Imagine yourself post-graduation. Would they welcome you into their fold with your chosen degree in tow? How useful would you be to them, in your opinion?
I absolutely do not think that art is a waste of time. Without art in this world we would be missing designs on clothing, the architecture of buildings, and the art we see in our everyday lives. We use so many forms of art to pass the time, like movies, music, and games on smartphones. Art is central to so many things in today’s society and it would be tough living without it. I know for me I spend some of my time creating art with drawing and painting. It’s a fun way to pass the time and keep my brain active. It creates a sense of accomplishment when I make something that I like as well. Art is so important to teach kids to be creative especially at a young age. Kids need to be able to create and be messy so that they can expand their minds and play with right and wrong. Art overall has had such a good impact on me, with favorite movies and favorite songs, it keeps me occupied and my mind busy. Without art, I think my life would be pretty dull. In my free time I would still have friends to hang out with and other stuff to do, but I would definitely miss being able to create art, watch movies, and listen to music.
I think going into a “helping profession”, Effective Altruism can be related to a point. I think being a dental hygienist, I align with the thought that I want to help people, but I will be doing it in a way related to improving oral hygiene rather than giving money to worthy causes. I think that EA’s would welcome dental hygienists because they do make a decent amount of money so they might think they could give donations to the cause.
Quote: “This website obviously portrays EA in the best light possible compared to Southan’s essay. We are getting the same information but rather than hearing it straightforward, the website is putting the focus on all of the good this is doing and using their facts to back it up.”
Comment/Question: I would also agree that the EA website presented its ideologies in a warm-hearted disguisable way in order to attract more supporters, compared to Southan’s essay where the true facts are really relieved. When I was on the website I was shocked to see pictures of numerous peoples or gatherings for EA and wondered if those pictures were actually legit or part of their way to seem like that people actually support EA. In your opinion did you think EA has as many supporters than the website actually portrays?
Q: “We use so many forms of art to pass the time, like movies, music, and games on smartphones. ”
C: This is a good point to bring up. Not just the typical movies and music that are forms of art, but there are many forms of art that are overlooked. Also, art as to pass time is a very cool concept and something that could be explored more.
Q: Why do you think that many of the forms of art , are overlooked? Do you think that people mistake art for entertainment?