Why does being good feel so bad.

[MotionMan]

trust me, i feel the same way sometimes. especially when you see the unethical [whatever your profession is] profitting big off of what you feel to be immoral or unethical and you're struggling because you're being straight up and honest, the way you should be.

This is especially true in the legal profession.

MotionMan

 

[eits]

tell your wife how badly you want one and maybe she'll get you one for christmas off craigslist or ebay or something.

 

[eits]

like i said before, kudos to you, motionman :thumbsup:

 

[MotionMan]

tell your wife how badly you want one and maybe she'll get you one for christmas off craigslist or ebay or something.

Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I really have little desire for one (though, if one was given as a gift (not from our family funds), I would find a use for it, as would my kids).

MotionMan

 

[MovingTarget]

If everyone would act as you did, the world would be a much better place.

Or, if you are a pessemist, no good deed goes unpunished.

 

[gaidensensei]

You are of the few remaining good samaritans, MotionMan. See it that the ipad has no long term lasting value, it is only short term entertainment. Some years later and it'll be along the shelves of commodores and pentium 4's.

Your good will, lasts till the day you die.

 

[MotionMan]

Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I really have little desire for one (though, if one was given as a gift (not from our family funds), I would find a use for it, as would my kids).

MotionMan

I realized that in the OP I said "I really want an iPad", I misspoke. I think I really meant "I really want a free iPad."

MotionMan

 

[Moonbeam]

I've been doing things "right" my whole life.
And frankly it sucks. I usually get fucked over for my kindness. Am pretty sure I'd be a lot happier if I just did want I wanted.

You have always done the right thing just as you wanted to because it's who you are. Kicking yourself in the ass for doing what's right is the way decent people express their self hate.

I'm sorry I said that.

 

[Powermoloch]

karma is gonna reward ya :thumbsup:

 

[JumBie]

Oh, doing the right thing, how my heart is just programmed to do it, I don't know. Has it ever helped me in my life, nope not at all. The good guy always finishes last, I know in my heart its the right thing to do, and I don't expect anything in return for doing the right thing, but sometimes I look at those who consistently do the wrong thing, and how their life differs from mine. Money, cars, women, shit those things would be nice.

 

[dighn]

it's the rampant self-serving cynicism in this society.

you are not a sucker for doing the right thing. it makes you a better person than someone who doesn't.

 

[yhelothar]

nah it just..

 

[brblx]

i'd have sold it to another iTard, bought the coworker a first gen netbook, told him it's a prototype iPad 7, and kept the proceeds.

 

[CZroe]

My job has me returning valuables all the time. Today it was a pair or Ray-Bans, a Droid 2, several sets of keys, and a purse. The Droid 2 needed to be returned to a Verizon store because the owner disabled it and would not respond to my emails.

I couldn't find the owner of the Ryobi drill I've been sitting on for weeks and I do really need a drill but I won't take it.

 

[BoomerD]

Wouldn't you have felt like a thieving dirtbag if you had kept it? How could you have not? How could you have ever really enjoyed it, knowing what you had done?

I've always instinctively and immediately done the right thing in circumstances such as this, and never once felt bad about it. In fact, just the opposite.

Feel good about yourself, MM. Feel strong. Honest men get to sleep well at night, and their bad karma never comes back to bite them.

Ah come on Perk...he's a lawyer...thieving dirtbag is just part of his daily routine...

FWIW, dishonest men sleep well at night as well...maybe even better than honest men because they usually don't give enough of a shit about anything to let it bother them...


(but MM did do the right thing anyway...just don't tell him I said so...you'll ruin my "lawyer-hater" reputation)

karma is gonna reward ya :thumbsup:

By running over your dogma...

 

[Pardus]

ipad: 2011 best toilet reading material

 

[Ichinisan]

Long story short:

I went into the restroom at work;
One of the guys on our floor (not from my company) left his iPad 1 in the stall (and I knew it was his because I saw him with it earlier today);
Even though I really want an iPad, I returned it to him immediately because I knew it was the right thing to do.

Now, I kinda feel like such a sucker for doing the right thing. Why can't doing the right thing feel better (at least for me).

MotionMan

I wouldn't feel that way at all. I would feel great pleasure that I was able to help someone and I'd hope anyone else would do the same for me.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Long story short:

I went into the restroom at work;
One of the guys on our floor (not from my company) left his iPad 1 in the stall (and I knew it was his because I saw him with it earlier today);
Even though I really want an iPad, I returned it to him immediately because I knew it was the right thing to do.

Now, I kinda feel like such a sucker for doing the right thing. Why can't doing the right thing feel better (at least for me).

MotionMan

You did great. The worse you feel about doing something inherently good, the more you know it is the right thing. Perhaps a lot of people experience this, but stepping up and doing the right thing seems to be discouraged these days.
Strange is it not ?

 

[angminas]

Well done, MM.

 

[Muse]

Long story short:

I went into the restroom at work;
One of the guys on our floor (not from my company) left his iPad 1 in the stall (and I knew it was his because I saw him with it earlier today);
Even though I really want an iPad, I returned it to him immediately because I knew it was the right thing to do.

Now, I kinda feel like such a sucker for doing the right thing. Why can't doing the right thing feel better (at least for me).

MotionMan

WTF's your problem? You just return it and don't think about it. You'd want the same thing to happen if you lost or misplaced yours, right? I left a decent mp3 player and expensive ( ! ) headphones on a chair at my gym and someone just pocketed it. Pissed me off royally. If I find something that belongs to someone else and there's a way for me to get it back to them, they get it, all of it. I don't feel like a sucker, ever. I've found a lot of stuff I could not return to the owner and kept it. Around a month ago I found a nice watch in the exercise room at the gym. I brought it to the front desk just as the guy who lost it came to ask about it. He claimed it, I said "it's yours?" I got a smile for my trouble. Yes, I have watches and don't need one. But if I'd found something expensive that I wanted for myself, I'd return it too, if I could. That's life, well my life. I figure I can manage to get the things I want if I work at it. If they are really beyond my reach, it's probably because I'm better off without them.

It's hard building a life, for me a lot of thought, research, time and energy is involved in making my life and buying decisions. I figure it's true of other people to a considerable extent. I extend them the courtesy of honoring their "ownership" of the things they have. Even a small child wants to "own" the things they have. When someone else disregards my ownership, I feel abandoned in some sense. It gnaws on my sense of public trust and decency. At least where I live there are people who, if you don't take the trouble to safeguard your possessions will steal them. For that reason I have to lock my bike, lock my doors. That's not true everywhere, but it is here and in a real way it's a shame. I think of John Lennon's "Imagine" and the line "all the people sharing all the world." It isn't just foolish idealism.

There seems to be a contradiction in honoring others' possession of things and the idealism of sharing. However I think that trust and honesty is fundamental and the ideal of sharing should spring from real generosity, wanting others to enjoy what you have.

 

[qliveur]

I wouldn't have been able to keep it even if I wanted to.

I don't enjoy feeling like trash.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I wouldn't have been able to keep it even if I wanted to.

I don't enjoy feeling like trash.

I know exactly what you mean.
Once (a decade ago) i could get for around a hundred bucks a fully operational hand held scope from fluke. At that time i really wanted it, but every time i would pick it up and hold it, thinking of all the nice things i could do with it, at the same time i had this strong feeling of someone else not being able to do anything with it since it was stolen. I could almost feel how depressed the original owner must have been when i changed my perspective from the view point of the original owner. I turned the offer down. Others called me dumb and a fool at the time but i am happy to this day. It is fun to find out so many alike minds exist by reading this thread.

 

[TridenT]

I've been doing things "right" my whole life.
And frankly it sucks. I usually get fucked over for my kindness. Am pretty sure I'd be a lot happier if I just did want I wanted.

lol this. Seriously.

There are so many times where I tell people that I had the option of stealing the item, not returning an item, something bad, rob something, or whatever and I knew I could get away with it, but I didn't. They look at me like I am a criminal even though I did the right thing.

 

[MotionMan]

Oh, doing the right thing, how my heart is just programmed to do it, I don't know. Has it ever helped me in my life, nope not at all. The good guy always finishes last, I know in my heart its the right thing to do, and I don't expect anything in return for doing the right thing, but sometimes I look at those who consistently do the wrong thing, and how their life differs from mine. Money, cars, women, shit those things would be nice.

Sometimes I feel like my being a good person is used against me by people who don't.

MotionMan

 

[lxskllr]

Sometimes I feel like my being a good person is used against me by people who don't.

MotionMan

That's because it is. Doing the right thing for it's own sake is more rewarding over the long term. I run into situations all the time where I could be dishonest, but get rewarded with something. The last time was a foam tux at a local snowball stand. I'd love to have a foam tux to sit on top of my computer, and I honestly doubt the stand owner would have given /that/ much of a shit if I pocketed it, but it's a lame thing to do. If I took it, I would have had a cool foam tux, but a little less spirit; not a good trade off.

Anyway, people will take advantage of your good nature, and I live under the philosophy that one good fucking deserves another, but you shouldn't take the offensive on that account. Everyone starts out neutral, and gets treated with respect, and courtesy. Take advantage of that, you better watch your ass, but good people outnumber the lame-asses, so you'll be spiritually ahead of the game, if not materially.