Questions

What’s the most useful thing you know?

I can feed and dress myself. I can’t think of anything more useful than that.

What impact do you think it would have on the world if bananas were illegal?

Quite a big one. Bananas are good for your health and not being able to obtain them would be especially bad for people in developing countries who eat them as a staple of their diet. It would affect the economies of the countries that exported them. The major producers of bananas are India, China and The Philippines. In Australia we grow bananas in Queensland and every few years the crops may be damaged by cyclones and bananas become very expensive. I remember one bad one that did so much damage that we pretty much stopped buying them for about a year. Obviously, a black market economy would develop and people would pay high prices for illegal bananas. Naomi and I love bananas, banana bread and banana smoothies are pretty good. We’d be forced to break the law or go without.

What social stigma does society need to just get over?

There is a lot of social stigma over mental illness. If a workmate had to take time off work due to mental illness they should not be treated differently to a worker who had suffered any type of illness or injury that forced them to take time off.

Do you prefer the moral viewpoint of consequentialism*, which focuses on the consequences of actions, or deontology,*  which focuses on the innate rightness or wrongness of the actions themselves?  

I probably lean a little more towards deontology although I don’t spend time thinking about the ethics of every situation. Neither is perfect for every scenario. I think killing is wrong but if someone kills in self defence I think it is justified although not desirable. We can’t know the consequences of our actions all the time. We shouldn’t lie but who hasn’t told “a little white lie” rather than hurt someone’s feelings with the truth? I was brought up to respect my elders but I don’t respect people who I consider morally reprehensible. However, I don’t think that it is OK to do something you know is bad to get a good outcome in most circumstances. A company might argue that establishing a factory will be good for jobs in the community which is true but it might also mean pollution of the area, loss of habitat for wildlife or the product might be something that could be considered to be unethical like guns for example. Good for some but not for others.

It’s a tricky subject and I guess we all just have to make the best decisions that we can. I think I had better go and watch “The Good Place” again.

Gratitude

It might sound odd to be grateful for bad luck but on Saturday when we went out to lunch I tripped over a step in the pub and fell. (No, I had not had anything to drink, we’d just arrived. ) I was able to get up with the aid of a chair and the only consequence seems to be a sore arm. I’m grateful it wasn’t worse.

I also had some good luck in finding a couple of vintage dolls I had wanted at the local market.