"Worth"

Florida man trapped in recliner
when mounted water buffalo
head falls on him.

I am trying (and I fear failing) to come to grips with the concept of “worth.” The dictionary, as usual, is not a great deal of help, but it does suggest the value of something measured by the esteem with which it is held, or the value of something in material (or monetary) terms. Henry David Thoreau once said, “It is not worth it to go around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.” I guess it could be worth it to someone if they had something to do with research on cats or doing a cat census, or some such thing. It seems obvious that worth, having to do with value of one thing or another, is basically a relative kind of concept. Where I run into real trouble with the idea of worth is when I try to apply it to specific activities. For example, is it “worth it” to spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan when those billions could be used here at home for all kinds of useful and important projects? Speaking for myself I have to conclude that it is not worth it. I guess President Obama and the Congress don’t agree with me. At the moment I’m thinking about drilling for oil. Is it worth it to drill in the deep ocean for oil when the potential for disaster is so great? Again, I have to say no, it is not. Whatever amount of oil we might get, no matter how great, is not worth sacrificing the Gulf of Mexico and who knows what else. Again, I guess Obama and Congress don’t agree with me as they keep on talking about more drilling, “once we figure out how to make it completely safe.” To me this is little more than magical thinking as it will never be safe enough to guarantee the life of the planet or large portions of it.

When Madeleine Albright was asked if the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children (as a result of our sanctions) was worth it, she replied that yes, it was. This is the most horrifyingly terrible and inhumane thing I have ever heard, it shocked me almost beyond belief. In fact, to this day I still have trouble believing she actually said this, but she did. Clearly her idea of worth, to me, is insane. Nothing we could have gained in Iraq could possibly be worth the lives of half a million innocent children (of course they were “only Arab children”). We were in Iraq for mainly one reason (in spite of what we have been told) and that reason had to do with oil and control of that product of the Middle East. Is it worth it to go around the world to control the oil? This is, I assume, the major reason we are keeping garrisons all around the world, primarily for oil, but no doubt for other valuables as well. I think it is not (think of all the oil we could have purchased for these trillions of dollars).

Getting away from oil for a moment, is it really worth it to criminalize marihuana and fill up our jails with users of this relatively common weed? Has our (completely failed) “war on drugs” been worth the billions we have spent on it? I cannot believe it. A more difficult question perhaps: is it worth it to keep someone artificially alive in a vegetative state for years even against their own wishes? Sometimes the concept of worth is masked or hidden by claiming that what we do “is in our best interest.” But is that just not another way of saying it's worth it? Or could we say that defending Israel is in our best interest but is actually probably not worth it? Obviously what constitutes worth for one person, or one country, is not the same as for others. With respect to Iran I would say that starting a “war” with them is not in our best interest, nor would it be worth it. There must be something I have missed entirely when it comes to this Iran situation. The last I heard Iran denies they are trying to make a bomb and there is no conclusive evidence to the contrary. Thus I guess we may go to war with them even though they are not in violation of the nuclear rules and are not a threat to us in any way. Of course such trivial things like that didn’t keep us from attacking Iraq. And oh, yeah, I guess there are those who think attacking that relatively helpless country was worth it. I don’t think so, and personally, I’d rather go back to a horse and buggy than go on with all this senseless killing and maiming of innocent people.
Are we so afraid of the withdrawal symptoms we would have from trying to break this addiction we are truly willing to kill for it? I fear we are.

LKBIQ:
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.
Carl Jung

TILT:
Koala bears are not bears and are not found in Western Australia or Tasmania.