I broadly agree with what’s written here, but I take issue with the idea of any “moral obligation.” First, it seems to suppose some threshold of morality that needs to be passed, but after which there is less imperative to do good—that doesn’t align with my personal views of morality. Second, I think it’s a pretty ineffective way of convincing people to do good (“hey, we have an opportunity to do a lot of good and be heroes!” seems more convincing than “you have an obligation to do good or else you’re a jerk!”).
I agree we should consider how other movements (like Black Lives Matter, feminism, or social justice) have grown, but I think these particular movements also point out some pitfalls we might want to avoid. In particular, it seems like value drift over time, not to mention lack of specific goals due to poor coordination, are issues some of those movements have experienced.
Definitely agree that “opportunity to do good” is more convincing than “obligation to do good”. What we meant here wasn’t that everyone has a moral obligation to organize, though I can see that formulation wasn’t super clear. The idea behind “obligation to organize” is something analogous to the GWWC pledge or joining 80,000 hours: a formal commitment EAs can make to do good in a particular way.
I broadly agree with what’s written here, but I take issue with the idea of any “moral obligation.” First, it seems to suppose some threshold of morality that needs to be passed, but after which there is less imperative to do good—that doesn’t align with my personal views of morality. Second, I think it’s a pretty ineffective way of convincing people to do good (“hey, we have an opportunity to do a lot of good and be heroes!” seems more convincing than “you have an obligation to do good or else you’re a jerk!”).
I agree we should consider how other movements (like Black Lives Matter, feminism, or social justice) have grown, but I think these particular movements also point out some pitfalls we might want to avoid. In particular, it seems like value drift over time, not to mention lack of specific goals due to poor coordination, are issues some of those movements have experienced.
Definitely agree that “opportunity to do good” is more convincing than “obligation to do good”. What we meant here wasn’t that everyone has a moral obligation to organize, though I can see that formulation wasn’t super clear. The idea behind “obligation to organize” is something analogous to the GWWC pledge or joining 80,000 hours: a formal commitment EAs can make to do good in a particular way.