I think that all “outrage” is misdirected, even when it has the justification of actual injustice. Because whether people are entitled to it or not, the practice is still reactionary, and doesn’t in itself do anything to help. As the old saying goes: “Don’t get mad - get even.” Or as I might try to spin it more constructively: “If what you witness happening is wrong - take steps to remedy it.”
There are numerous problems with that. Firstly, no culture is subject to the values of another. What is your high-ground for saying that they should change, when they can (and might) just as easily say the same about your culture? The notion that on culture can “civilize” another has long been the tool of getting popular support for acts of imperialism. Other cultures - not unlike individuals - aren’t failing simply upon the basis of not meeting your standards,
Then there is the notion that there is somehow something wrong with death and dying. That living longer for its own sake “just because” is somehow more virtuous. Isn’t it more often a matter of simple instinctually pre-programmed fear? Is being a slave to instinct really more virtuous than being responsible for how one lives and dies, leaving it to chance? A goal oriented person might simply decide that the purpose of their life is to accomplish X, which takes Y years, and after that time declare themselves to be finished. Their death might be an event of celebration and optimism, that proudly declares “mission accomplished!” Isn’t that agency? Yet “western liberalism”, which claims to be so individualist, is so arrogant as enshrine survival at any cost an unquestionable bedrock of discussion of ethics and rational self-interest, in complete denial of anybody’s choice. Not only is that despicably meddlesome by my standards, it also demonstrates a failure to live up to its own self-professed cultural values.
If people didn’t hold some aspects of life in sensational regard, then others like this Logan Paul character would have no way to exploit this with their media spectacles. It would be like trying to flash people on a nudist beach, and they would quickly give up instead of being “rewarded”. The best reaction, is generally no reaction.
I could go on at greater length, but I have said all I needed to about this. Goodbye everybody!
