What are my obligations during my life Options

[depressed lonely...]

By living I consume resources, What do I have to do to make up for that?
What do I have to achieve to make the effort of life and the time I've spent worthwhile?

[Wookiee]

JUSTIFY YOURSELF!

[Greeneyes]

Obligations to whom?

If you mean society, then perhaps obligations are fulfilled by getting a job and working hard and being part of the system you live in.

Also: How do you define 'worthwhile'?

[Mata]

There's a company that you can pay an donation to whenever you fly on a plane. You tell them the length of your journey and they calculate the amount of pollution your portion of the flight is putting into the environment, you then give them a donation that they use to plant enough trees to compensate for the damage. It's a pretty cool idea!

Is that the sort of thing you mean? A leave-no-trace policy for the global impact of your life?

[depressed lonely...]

Obligations to the planet
To society
To myself
Proof that my life isn't meaningless and that I've done somthing more than work, eat, consume, and forefill my own needs in some 70 years of life.

[depressed lonely...]

Mata that at the least but I'd like to have one meaningfull dead to my name.
That I did something for someone that meant something that wasn't totally shallow and self forefilling.

[Jimmy-von-Lucidi...]

Currently we are outstripping the planets ability to regenerate with the vast quantaties we consume, so perhaps you could consume less or join a proactive movement or create something that means something, that can inspire generations of people to come. That might be going a little far but there are so many things you could do to make your life as meaning as possible.
In Melbourne there is this caffee and on their menu there are no prices because there is no standard charge, the individual pays what he thinks is fair or can afford. This means that if you have no money and are starving you can get yourself a really amazing meal and if your mega wealthy you can leave a fat tip. I think this sort of thing could become an important social phenomena despite the abuse it may atract.

[depressed lonely...]

I saw that place on SBS it was sooooo awesome.
But with the scum around it would attract so much abuse, After all I remember my go-and-try-every-tester-with-no-intention-of-ever-buying days That place was vegan too wasn't it.
Did you see that whole episode on melbourne or the week after on capetown?

[pgrmdave]

Be happy. Enjoy your life, and don't take away from others' enjoyment. If you are a theist, as I am, then look at life as a gift, and don't squander it by being unhappy with it. If you aren't a theist, then remember that we only have a short while to exist, and we should make the best of it. The environment means nothing unless changing it detracts greatly from people's enjoyment of life. Your obligations are to yourself (to be happy) and to everybody else (to not impair their happiness).

[depressed lonely...]

Well thats a good answer.

Should I reproduce if I can be a good parent?
Should I work a standard 9-5 job or pick up work as I find it?
Can I be an artist if it leaves me on unemployment till I'm 35?
Do I need to help people or just not hinder them?

[pgrmdave]

Should I reproduce if I can be a good parent?

Do you want to, and could you ensure that they would have a good chance of happiness?

Should I work a standard 9-5 job or pick up work as I find it?

A job is useful for making one feel needed, and for obtaining money, with which you are able to live within society. However, it is not necessary, nor is the type of job important.

Can I be an artist if it leaves me on unemployment till I'm 35?

If that is what would make you happiest, then it is not only a good thing to do, but the best thing to do, most likely.

Do I need to help people or just not hinder them?

Helping is good, and better, but it is more important to not hinder.

[Bragi]

Should I reproduce if I can be a good parent?

Do you like children, and do you want them? I've been told that I would make an excellent parent. I can be fair with discipline, I'm good at explaining things and teaching them to people, and I like to think I have a reasonable ability to communicate and to deal with them - notwithstanding the fact that I appear to be very good at handling kids. The problem? I don't like children. Not at all, even if they're related I don't like them - I'm just good at pretending that I do. This dislike of children is the reason why I will not reproduce, and the only reason.

If you want children, and you can be a good parent, then by all means do so. However, the two are not mutually exclusive - some people are plainly not cut out to be parents, and it's not an easy responsibility to take on. If you can't be a good parent, then you shouldn't have children - end of story. If you believe that you can be a good parent, then it boils down to what you want to do, after thinking through all the potential ramifications of that decision.

Should I work a standard 9-5 job or pick up work as I find it?

9-5 may be dull, but it pays the bills. I work 9-5 (well, 8.30-4.30, but that's just being pedantic), and it isn't exciting, not by a long way. On the other hand, I've spent the past year as an agency temp, and although the past eight months (with only four days off in total *growl*) have been spent at one place, before that it was very much a case of "work as I find it" - or rather, "work as and when the agency finds me it". It depends on which you can cope with. I get by by taking the approach that for now, I'm not bothered what I do to earn a wage (provided it doesn't contradict my sense of morality), it's what I do in my spare time that makes me happy or not. I separate out my working life and my personal life, and treat them as separate entities, so what I do to earn my living doesn't bother me as much as it does other people - once I stop my paid time, I stop caring.

Can I be an artist if it leaves me on unemployment till I'm 35?

"Artist" and "unemployment" are not necessarily the same thing. Unless you consider yourself a professional artist (as in, your art is the means by which you earn a living), then they're not the same thing at all. It is a common misconception made by an awful lot of people, and it's just, well, wrong. I write occasionally. It's dried up lately for external reasons, but in another month or two circumstances should change in such a way as to reactivate the writing, and I've got a couple of projects in the pipeline for that point. Do I consider myself a writer? Yes. I've never been paid for writing, nor have I ever looked to be paid for it. It's something I've always done because I enjoy it. Whether you are paid for your work or not does not preclude you from being an artist, because it's still something you can do through love.

[Forever Unknown]

...

*hand*

*stapler*

*forehead*

*byyyyyyyyyyyyye!*

[bryden42]

you have no obligations other than those that you choose to impose upon yourself. this is at the very root of what it means to be a moral person. Both religion and society will try to impose obligations upon you, you will always have the choice of refuting or denying those obligations, you will just have to live with the consequences if you do. Life, in my oppinion, is therefore a balancing act between doing what you believe is right, doing what everyone else believes is right and doing what you want.

If you come up with a solution please tell me what it is..... not that it will matter as each solution is based on the individual.

hope this helps

[Daria]

You could do something like buy a bit of land, and grow your own forrest (not sure how you would go about this, 'tis just an idea) and then name it, and let it be a space where people can go picnic and enjoy the area. Then you can say that you have done something for people, the environment, and yourself.

Everyday I feel a sort of guilt for having what I have, for being a consumer, for wasting things, for not doing all I can for the environment, and when I try to explain this to people, I usualy end up crying or getting wierd looks. Or both.
But I would love to beable to do something to "save" the world I suppose. I always donate to a charity if they ask, I donate to Oxfam and Cancer Research UK on a monthly basis, I buy second hand clothes instead of going to the shopd and buying hoards of new, child-labour-made clothes which will go out of fashion as soon as they came in, and I have also started to give blood.
But I still feel it isn't enough, and when planning things like going to America in my gap year, I was considering saving up the same amount of money as I will spend on the trip, and donating it to a good cause.

But which one? And should it just be one, or cut up the amount and spread it across many?

I get moments of this, and it makes me feel quite depressed, selfish and very guilty.

I will work it out one day, and when I am able to afford it, I will do more.
Perhaps plant my own trees...

[Snugglebum the D...]

...

*hand*

*stapler*

*forehead*

*byyyyyyyyyyyyye!*

Mwhahahahahahahaha!!

*staples other hand for good measure*

[Pikasyuu]

Keep in mind that you, personally, have not stripped the planet of its resources. If you still feel bad? Do everything you can to preserve it. Ride your bike, use less gas, pollute less, etcetera etcetera. I realise it takes a lot more effort because society has set up shortcuts to living and getting to work and most of the impliments in place like gas, etc, are bad for the planet, but that effort is your way of contributing to the planet's longer lifespan.

Otherwise, you can't think of your life in terms of a to do list. You cannot make a concrete decision on parenthood right now. The entire point of life is to deal with things as they come, not plot it all out. What's the fun in predictability, anyway?

Life does not come with instructions and you cannot map it out that way. Accept it.

[Jimmy-von-Lucidi...]

BRAGH! Crazy philosophical music and in-depth conversation = mental overload. See I believe that we should be able to do whatever it is we want as long as it doesn't infringe upon another’s freewill but then perhaps if we do what we want now we infringe upon the freewill of future generations by forcing them to fix problems we carelessly created in our-self indulgent pursuits. Should we have children? Should we make toilet paper out of that forest? Should we shoot billions of dollars in to space every year? Should we feed the starving? Should we save the whales? Should everyone live in a glass jar?

See that's the problem with Satanism, if everyone lived as they wanted would we not be offering our children a big pile of rubble and plastic skyscrapers as inheritance? Well I really don't know why I brought Satanism up, just sort of clicked.

Life feeds on other life, it's called entropy so perhaps we can do nothing but continue to consume and destroy short of taking away freewill.

I'm rambling, damn music getting me off topic...

*White noise... communications severed*

[Wookiee]

...

*hand*

*stapler*

*forehead*

*byyyyyyyyyyyyye!*

Snrrrk.

Give in to the EMO side of the Force!