Effectiveness

Most altruists get over notions of social exchange. If I think someone else's life is as valuable as mine, I tend to do things for them without the expectation that they repay me.

But that isn't to say there are no expectations. Surely, being appreciated for an act of service is always nice, but that isn't really the kicker.

There is often the expectation that the service does something good. That our sacrifice was not in vein. People rarely do things for themselves that they don't think are going to work. So even if the value of another is mingled with the value of the self, if there is no chance that any intervention will work, action is unlikely.

This is important to keep in mind. As people who are striving to do good, hope is a crucial component. It is not enough to value the other. We must also foster the hopefulness that what we can do can help.

Get beyond yourself

Invest beyond yourself.

Too often we get invested in our identities, building ourselves up into something great.

But we are limited. Trying for greatness within ourselves is a finite endeavor, constrained by the physical and temporal boundaries that constrain us.

If you work in such a way that uncertainty and fear transforms into vision and courage, if you serve other people before yourself, investing in others, the work lives on long after you have gone.

This is the way great work gets done. Forget whose work it is.

The Seat of Sin

Why do people do wrong?

The simple answer is because they are bad. For one reason or another, they choose immoral activity. Where then does the responsibility lay? On them.

But look a little closer. An astute observer starts seeing environmental trends. It seems social forces have a powerful impact on the way people live. It seems responsibility is a trickier subject in light of sociological factors.

Now, some people choose a strong side on this issue, defending either the idea of personal responsibility or social factors. Truth is, in almost all situations both are playing a role. Sure, there are some cases so heinous and without provocation that it is clearly the sin of the person, and some environments so caustic that it is clearly the sin of the situation. But most situations rest in the realm of both.

This duality of the seat of sin teaches us important things. On the one hand, don't be quick to judge, for you know not the pressures on the person who has fallen. But on the other, do not eliminate the role of the individual in the outcome of their actions. There has always been a struggle between that which comes down upon us and that which flows up out of us.

This dual truth also bifurcates our constructive actions. We must strive to eliminate the systematic, environmental, economic, social, political, cultural and community mechanisms that strain the harmony of goods. But we must also inspire individual people to take responsibility for their actions, bring them into a clarity of being that can get beyond the immoral implications of their surroundings.

Claims, Evidence, and Warrant

A claim is a statement of truth. It concerns some issue, and it makes a point.

Evidence is the data, experience, objects, and events that support the claim. They can support the truth of the claim, or they can disprove competing claims.

Here's the tricky one. Warrant is the underlying value set that determines what counts as evidence. Warrant is built out of the worldview of the investigator, and is what casts legitimacy on different kinds of evidences and diminishes the legitimacy of others. Consider the difference between the warrant of scientific pursuit and the warrant of judicial proceedings. In science it doesn't count as evidence if it cannot be repeated and falsified. Whereas in law enforcement, the event is past (and the courts are not likely to encourage anyone to repeat the event), so testimony, specific artifacts, and even motivations are seen as evidence.

Why this all matters... When talking about different aspects of human being, be it study of human culture, empirical inquiry, personal reflection, or divinity... different data, experience, objects, and events are going to, at times, count as evidence and at others not. Depending on the warrant.

I was talking to Kristen recently about her time in Medjugorje. When discussing an experience in the presence of a Locutionary, Kristen attested to having a particularly powerful spiritual moment. She went into the details of the encounter, reflecting on her personal, spiritual, and emotional states at the time. After saying this, Kristen says:

"I don't have any evidence, but..."

Now, knowing what we do about warrant, is it true that she doesn't have evidence? It depends.

According to scientific warrant, does she have evidence? No. She has no specimens, no read outs, no way of recreating the scene.

According to religious warrant, does she have evidence? Of course! With personal, spiritual, and emotional reflections on the matter, her actually being there is vastly more valuable than any read out could ever be... within a religious context.

She even has decent evidence within traditions that value ethnographic data. Additionally, the entire community surrounding Medjugorje adds a kind of evidence that is highly respected among even harder social sciences.

In short, never let anyone bully you by telling you you don't have proof. You may not have the proof they want, but remind them that all proof exists within an intellectual context. The direct answer to a prayer is all the proof I could ever hope for... but keep in mind that without an avid prayer life... such "evidence" is meaningless.


Side note: you can tell a lot about what a person will ever believe by looking to the warrant they hold. If someone only accepts physical evidence to solve all problems, they are unlikely to come to claim that the universe is made through love. My favorite annoying thing to ask atheists and agnostics is if they have ever prayed for more faith. They tend to give me a look, and ask why they would pray if they weren't sure there was anything to pray to. I tell them to pray, "Oh, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" (I think its in Mark.) They tend not to be impressed.

I realize it's totally ridiculous, but it's my little way of pointing out the importance of warrant.

Concerning the Reality of Santa Claus

Its something that has broken the heart of many a child. The magic of Christmas stifled in a moment of unveiling. Perhaps it was the accidental discovery of a stash of presents. Perhaps it was a midnight encounter with not too stealthy parents. Too often it's an innocent shattering comment from an older sibling or school mate that brings the fantasy to a screeching halt.

Santa Claus isn't real.

The stories, the reindeer, the milk and cookies... all of it... a farce. In the end it turns out to be nothing more than a culture-wide charade. I mean, we do eventually get over it. Maybe the trust is broken a bit, but we are still getting presents, and we continue in the little game. We don't tell the younger kids, and by the time we are adults, we are so enchanted by the fantasy world of our own youth that we go to great lengths to conjure the phantasmagoria for the younger generation... all for that whiff of nostalgia.

I think it terribly ironic that when you actually face the truth, it is the disbelief in Santa that is childish, not the other way around.

Wait, what?

Yes, Santa is real.

I realize this is not a popular opinion for those over the age of seven, but hear me out. Something is real if it actually exists. While it is true that Santa isn't physically real, meaning he doesn't exist in the physical world, it is a tragic misstep to count him out of all reality.

The things in our heads, are, after all, real. Once again, the idea of a ball is differently real than a ball in your back yard, but no less real. Ideas, dreams, hopes, imaginations, fancies, plans, expectations, emotional experiences, sensations... these are all real. That's why they matter so much. Since Santa exists in the mind of even one person, he exists.

But Santa is real in even more ways. True he can be found in our minds, but he can also be found amid our minds. Santa is a communal notion, spanning the imaginations of many. This mimetic aspect gives jolly ol' St. Nick a wider and more persistent existence.

Finally, Santa is also real because he is a social construct. The idea of the man in red is not a passive thought, but one that evokes action. The legend carries a prescription, a behavioral imperative that we then carry out. Consider the notion of Justice. Nowhere in all the world can you find a physical piece of Justice. Symbols and examples, perhaps, but no actual Justice. No, Justice is an idea, an ideal even, that is communally negotiated and made manifest by human action. In the same way Claus is a collectively authored idea that we make real by playing the part, from buying the gifts to eating the cookie. Just like handcuffs and judge's mallets.

So, while Father Christmas may not be physically real, he is real in that he exists in our minds, amid the minds of a community, and is physically manifested by human actions. But don't tell your brother. I don't think he's ready to know the truth.