JUDAS: A Modern Journal

Remy, the main character in Pixar's Ratatouille, is a metaphor for the literally starving, poor artist, who feels resentment towards a capitalist society whilst trying to climb its ranks and escape poverty. My mind simply shall not be changed. In the film, Remy's family exist purely to survive, and his dad has evolved to ignore Remy's love of his art - cooking - and dismiss his passions because passions are for the rich. His father only starts to care about Remy's talents when they become economically viable, and therefore beneficial to their survival as the poor.  When you start to think of the rats as the poor, and the humans as the rich, it starts to make much more sense. Remy yearns for the human (rich) experience because they have the ability to create art and pursue their passions with no care for material expense or wasted time. This is true in our society. Whilst the rich are free to pursue passions on a whim, able to purchase expensive materials easily, the poo...

In philosophy, Utilitarianism is a group of beliefs within normative (behavioural) ethics that, very basically, attempts to maximize utility - often defined as well-being, or the abstract 'greater good.' To give an example, Jeremy Bentham - often regarded as the father of utilitarianism - described Utilitarianism as  "that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness … to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered."  Utilitarianism is a form of  consequentialism , which is another group of philosophical beliefs that argues the consequences of any action are the only means of describing morality - for this argument: right and wrong.  Utilitarianism.net is a site run by utilitarians and furthers their argument that utilitarianism is the only morally correct ideology on the matter because 's uffering is bad, and happiness is good. What could be...

Decisions concerning only oneself are not arguments, but simple decisions. Often framed in terms of pros and cons, this simple debate is one where either answer is valid and acceptable. You shouldn't be forced to get vaccinated just because it's good for you. As an autonomous individual, you get to decide when to take risks, when to go against statistics, and when to engage in a little recreational danger. This kind of risk is something we do a lot of as a species: motorcycling because it's fun even though cars are safer; base jumping from the Burj Khalifa when it's much safer to just not ; dodging essential vaccines even though that's really stupid (whatever gets you that adrenaline rush, I guess.) I would have no objection to people opting out of vaccination if it only affected them, but it doesn't, it affects everyone, like all 7.97 billion of us. Because it affects more people than just yourself, it's a moral question.  So, let's talk about how your ...