There is a saying that many use:
The ends justify the means
Usually when they have to destroy a city to "save it".
Or do anything that would be considered bad, in their pursuit of their goals, and don't want to be considered the bad guy.
The phrase is most often used by govern-cements that want their "citizens" to accept the evil they intend to wrought.
And just as countries use this, individual people do to. For such small things as selling their soul to a corporation so that they can continue to be paid. Selling all their time while their children grow up without them noticing. Or marrying the wrong guy because "he is rich" and so the children will not have to worry about straving.
The ends NEVER justify the means! And i will try to explain how and why herein.
The path to something contains all the attributes of that something
If you are on a journey to find happiness, every step along the way contains some happiness.
Thus, if you trying to find happiness, and your steps do not contain happiness, you are going the wrong way.
This is a truism. It is just a different way of stating the Law of Attraction. You attract that which you are a vibrational match to. If you are a vibrational match to happiness, you will find more and more happiness. Your journey will lead you to more.
If, instead, you are looking to stop sadness by getting rid of the "bad guy", there is no happiness on that path. In fact, what you are attracting is sadness. And the only thing you will do is bring more sadness, and if you defeat the "bad guy" (by invading the country) then you will bring even more sadness.
The people of that country may choose to attract happiness, despite having been invaded. And, this will go against whatever the invader had intended. And, what really sucks is that the invader will not stop, even though happiness came to that nation, because they are blinded. They cannot see the happiness, there focus is on the elimination of sadness. The two are not similar at all.
We do things in order to get things.
We are often doing things in order to get other things. And this leads to many hardships and unhappiness. Because one does not equal the other.
Like, people act nice, so that people will be nice to them. This sorta works because if you are truly being nice and are attracting niceness, you develop more niceness. But, if you are only acting nice, because you are in fear of others, you will often get many other responses, like people withdrawing from interacting with you because they feel something is off. Like other people responding in anger, to bring about what you fear. Like people being afraid of you.
If you are doing something, only to get something, you are inadvertently doing the means for the ends, that you will not get.
We also do this to the universe. We ask the universe to give us a million dollars, so that we can feel rich, or so that we can buy a lambo. When it is far easier for the universe to just get you a lambo. And a million dollars will not make you feel rich, if you are not already in a frame of mind to feel rich.
If you have wants, ask yourself, why do you want it. And with that answer, ask why do you want that. Repeating this you will get to the bottom of what you really want, and why.
Like, if you want a Lambo to impress your friends, so that they will like you more, so that they won't abandon you… well, you really need to work on your fear of abandonment. And the Lambo will not help you with that at all.
Ending war
The ends never justify the means, and if you are walking a path that doesn't have the attributes of where you want to go, seriously look into yourself. Find what you really want. Find out what you are truly attracting.
Starting a war, to have peace is just stupid. You will never get there from here. In fact, if you have an anti-war protest, you are still attracting war. If you want peace, start with finding the beginnings of peace. And then find more and more peace.
People in the future will find that it is just better to give your "enemy" what they want than to go to war. (this requires finding out what the "enemy" really wants. And, when you do that, then you can actively look for peace. And when we are both doing this, then both parties will get what they really want, and closer bonds can be formed.
(and for those who believe i am saying to pay-off raiders, which will only attract more raiders… You do not give them money, you find out what they really want. Perhaps they want farm tools, or provisions for the winter. And both of these can be negotiated with, and actual trade can be started. Or, maybe they want a good battle, for which a contest could be set up.)
So, when you hear some form of "The ends justify the means" by the MSM, know that they are lying and that they are just looking to get public approval for their atrocities.
And as long as we still believe "The ends justify the means" we will fall into many more traps.
We must break ourselves from doing things to get other things. Unless we have an open, and upright contract from someone else to provide what we want, for what we are giving.
Such as, if you do something, so that your girlfriend will love you, then you are going to get resentful, and your girlfriend is not going to love you. Unless it is something that you love to give, and it is something that she feels loving when receiving.
Remove these from your life, and your life will go much better.
And, if enough of us do this, the countries will not get away with saying, "We have to invade them, to save them, and we must bomb their cities to keep their cities from being destroyed, and we must blow up women and children, to save the people…"
Hm "the ends justify the means" is just another way of saying short term pain for long term gain. AKA the definition of investment. It's a tough sell to claim that "all investments are never worth it".
But I'm sure you'd call this a false equivalence within the current context.
The ends often justify the means, but when sociopaths say it, it's almost never true.
For example we've learned a lot from animal testing.
But we've taken it too far and now we're just torturing animals like the asshole monkeys we are.
I can't answer for him, but I try to point out in my answer to him above, that it's not short term pain that is the issue at all. It's a matter of principle, actually. Rather than focusing on a result, the journey is the result you focus on, and you choose the journey. You enjoy TA and all the challenges degen defi presents to you, and that's what you spend your time on, at least what I see of your daily schedule. That infuses your days with enjoyment, not suffering, and it is more valuable to enjoy your life than to have a particular kind of asset or result that has made you suffer and lament your days spent attaining it.
When you are at the end of your life and looking back, it won't be the assets you have acquired that matter to you, but the life you have lived. I get tired packing materials up ladders, smack my thumbs and bleed. I do suffer short term pain for long term gain, but it's the context that I do it in that matters, that enables me to overcome the pain with being happy I am achieving a solution for the homeowner to enable them to enjoy the home they have striven so hard to get. There's no point in suffering the pain if the gain doesn't outweigh that pain at the time. That comes from enjoying the work you're doing that causes the pain, and that's the real reward at the end of the day.
Well it's also a matter of people outsourcing the pain to other entities and then personally profiting with no pain/risk to themselves. And then they'll make some false claim like "we're all in this together".
This is a real pain we suffer. It isn't a new thing. Looking at human history reveals innumerable times such profiteers eventually received just rewards for the harm they inflicted. Eventually their means justify their ends. This is not to say that not doing that prevents suffering and people that limit their ends by their choice of principled means float off into the sunset on happy clouds of contentment. All of us die of something that overwhelms our contentment, after all. But my experience of seeking to undertake principled acts avails me of qualitatively better appreciation of what I have, and my recollection of unprincipled acts is that I lose self respect, contentment, peace of mind, and resort to conceit instead of honest confidence and self esteem I believe I merit.
I know you act on principle because you have done so when you didn't just take valuables from others that could not protect them. Instead you protected them yourself. You demonstrate the means by which you attain your ends must be just by your reckoning, and that your self respect is more valuable to you than mere tokens. Others do falsely claim principles, but you live by them.
I pretty strongly agree with your basic premise, and I demonstrate that principle daily because I do the work I do, rebuilding houses that are getting old, replacing roofs, floors, windows, and the like, because I enjoy it. It's like solving puzzles in 3D and leaving a beautiful home behind you that the owners will enjoy for decades after I'm done. I don't do a 'job' for pay. I help people with their homes because I enjoy doing it and am always gratified when I walk away with a beautiful, functional home lived in by a new friend very happy I helped them out. This dramatically changes whom I work for, why I work every day, and how I do what I do.
Because I'm not chasing ROI, I don't take shortcuts. I get to the root of the problem and solve the source issue, not cover over the symptoms with a quick fix. I keep getting more work than I can actually get done because of word of mouth. Everybody has friends that need help, and when you find a cure for common problems you let your friends know about it because you want them to enjoy their home, which is why they worked so hard and paid so much to get it.
I don't have to put up with bosses that yell at me, sleazy suppliers that shave a couple pennies off the price but try to get it back through shipping costs, or handling fees, or some other trick. It makes the work I enjoy doing enjoyable and I am creating a bubble of contentment, satisfaction, and happiness wherever I go and work. That all makes getting up in the morning easy, looking forward to having fun solving puzzles and leaving beauty behind me. That makes all the difference to me. I can hardly understand why people put up with work they hate doing, bosses they hate doing it for, and always wanting more money to make up for their suffering than can be had for it.
It's a way of life for me, and I dread being too old to climb a ladder or pack 90 lb. bundles of shingles up one to get them to the roof, because I'll have to find another way to create such good results. I think I know how, and put it in motion just this morning, so we'll see how that works out. But the fundamental structure of my life is not having to overcome negatives all day. Rather it's creating positives, happiness, satisfaction, and contentment all day every day. That makes all the difference in the world, to me, and to the world I live in.
Thanks!