I'm posting this as part of the Forum's Benjamin Lay Day celebration — consider writing a reflection of your own! The “official dates” for this reflection are February 8 - 15 (but you can write about this topic whenever you want).
I've cross-posted this to my substack, Raising Dust, where I sometimes write less EA Forum-y content.
TL;DR:- Tragic beliefs are beliefs that make the world seem worse, and give us partial responsibility for it. These are beliefs such as: “insect suffering matters” or “people dying of preventable diseases could be saved by my donations”.
- Sometimes, to do good, we need to accept tragic beliefs.
- We need to find ways to stay open to these beliefs in a healthy way. I outline two approaches, pragmatism and righteousness, which help, but can both be carried to excess.
Why I ignored insects for so long
I’ve been trying not to [...]
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Outline:
(00:37) Why I ignored insects for so long
(03:06) What is a tragic belief?
(03:46) How can we open ourselves up to tragic beliefs?
(04:00) Opportunity framing, or pragmatism
(06:02) The joy in righteousness
The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.
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First published:
February 8th, 2024
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dy5h9Ly8osZEiFkru/tragic-beliefs
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
