The Distinction

She brought it up. Somehow the topic of a class in Logic had come to the front of the discussion and she presented the idea of utilitarianism as "the greatest good for the greatest amount of people." The conversation proceeded something like this:

'You know, the funny thing about 'utilitarianism' is how much that concept is already at play right now.'
'How do you mean?'
'Take our presidential election for example. Everybody votes and the person with "more" wins. That is the greatest amount of "good" for the greatest amount of people.'
'Yeah but in those elections [2000,2004] people were removing their own rights, that was not the greatest good.'
'Certainly not in your opinion, but many people were happy with those outcomes. You must separate your feelings from the discussion--I never said it wasn't messed up.'

And so it is when considering advanced ideas and concepts that we must be responsible. It is a long and widely respected trait to have the capacity of separating one's emotional self from a discussion. The Japanese respected politeness and self-control. The Greeks contemplated hubris and temperance.

We are in a world where things are so continually re-defined that sincerity is greatly lacking and even the oldest human concepts have little meaning. People's attitudes regarding words like 'socialism' and 'patriotic' are more often influenced by news media as opposed to their own time spent thinking about it. Perhaps justice would call for the "American" people to get "Cramered" regarding their social convictions. If it's on TV it's gotta be true.