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What is My Duty?

What is my duty? What is my duty to myself, Cindy, my family, friends, society, and humanity?

Debeo

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Debitum— my duty, my debt, my obligation. Like a “debit” card. It seems the notion of duty first originates from the financial notion of debt. If you owe someone money or have a debt, you’re obliged to them. You don’t got freedom. You gotta pay them back.

My duty

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My personal duty is to be strong. To be strong for myself and others. My hierarchy:

First myself, then Cindy, then friends, family, then everyone else.

You don’t gotta “pay back” your debt in life

The misguided notion:

Jesus sacrificed his life for us, thus we must also sacrifice our lives for others, otherwise we are contemptible, evil, and despicable people who will rot in hell.

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Utilitarian notions

Tricky thing about utilitarianism and American and western thought:

The collective happiness and thriving of everyone prioritizes the masses over the individual.

Thus, an individual is seen only as a useful instrument or utility for the masses. Anything an individual does for the herd is good, anything the individual does for himself is evil.

Duty must be self-dictated — for yourself, by yourself, and towards your own personal ends.

My ultimate duty is towards humanity. I want to see society thrive to the maximum. I want to empower the individual. But why? Because I want to. I care. It’s what is genuine to me.

My virtues are my virtues, your virtues are your virtues

Nobody should superimpose their ethics and morality on someone else. In simple terms:

My pride commands that my virtues are private for myself, and to superimpose my virtues on others reduces the grandeur of my personal ethics and morality.

Duty is not universal

We new stoics — what is our duty to ourselves? To become harder. Stronger. Colder. More cruel. More indifferent. More insensitive. More focused, hard, and concentrated in ourselves.

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