Philosophy

Utilitarianism unsatisfying. It appears to be a rational philosophy based on a subjective standard of measure, a standard oriented toward the concept of "more", which seems avaricious and consumptive. And I'm not much of a sadist either. But your choice of philosophies is interesting indeed.

If our objective is to make the most people the most happy, how do we define happiness? I read about a study a while back, I believe it was in Slate, where happiness is best defined as "investment" rather than "joy". If that's the case, countries where the population is most invested in their religion would be the most successful societies on earth. Of course, nobody expects the inquisition. And when it comes to seeing that guy in Ohio turned inside out over a long period of time would make Sadism sound like a good idea, cruelty as an objective doesn't work very well in interpersonal relationships or societies either.

And yet, I exhibited some of both. I moved from a visceral dislike for the guy because of his crime, and toward an embrace of the categorical imperative that it is wrong to kill, even in the name of justice. I seemed to move from a subjective standard to an objective standard. Or did I? I mean, the killer himself violated the imprimatur of the objective standard to start with. And he probably did it because of a sadistic subjective standard.

Everywhere I look, the idea of movement seems to be the lynch pin of all human endeavor.