I feel like such a sucker for thinking so much about the topic of winning the lottery, but I can’t help it - it embodies everything I care about, in a poetic sense. Perhaps I just use it as an excuse to think about hard topics? ;-P
I was laying in bed, throwing my orange ball up at the ceiling, debating with myself about the morality of winning the lottery. If I could find a way to win, would it be cheating? What overall goal am I aiming for, and is this goal moral? Am I just doing it because I want to escape the rat race of living paycheck to paycheck? Or is there an honest and healthy reason for my obsession?
I can’t lie to myself… I know that part of me desperately wants to transcend society’s dependence on money. By winning the jackpot, I will essentially free myself from years of burden and conformity required by society in order to pay for the necessities of life. But free myself to what end? What would I do with my time, once liberated?
There is a divine balance to reality. Any push away from truth creates a perfectly calculated, equal and opposite push towards truth.
If my theories are correct, then society has made a gamble against truth. Society has taken the stance of “random things happen, and sometimes it’s just coincidence”. The lottery embodies this assumption by society.
But if the assumption is false - if things happen for a reason, and there is an underlying meaning in everything - then I should be able to win the lottery. Not for the money - but for the point of demonstrating the falseness of society’s assumption. After all, who am I to say that I am right, and society is wrong? What evidence have I presented society with? As far as society is concerned, I’m just a peebrain with a blog :-).
So, my goal is to demonstrate to society that the assumption of “random things happen, and sometimes it’s just coincidence” is false. Now maybe I am wrong - maybe society’s assumption is correct. In which case, I won’t win the lottery, and my failed demonstration can be used as evidence that some things are random. Of course, that’s not the outcome I believe will come to pass :-), but reality will be the judge of that.
Now - I believe that this goal is moral. My goal is rooted in revealing truth - whether I’m correct or incorrect. However, does this answer the question of what to do with the money, once I win?
Yes, I believe it does. Now that I’ve defined my goal, and my goal is moral, I can more easily see what follows.
After demonstrating that society’s assumption is false, I must spend the money on discovering the truth. It’s the only moral way to balance out the situation. I can’t take advantage of society’s ignorance, then disappear with the money to lead a selfish life of abundance. Once I win, it will become my responsibility to spend the money on restoring balance.
So, let it be known:
If I win the jackpot, then I will use the money to research the topic of both how society allows itself to become deceived, and what the truth actually is. I will create an organization in order to accomplish this research. I am announcing this because, in the event that I win, I want to ensure that everyone keeps me honest. I am human, and I will definitely be tempted to just pack up my bags, and live a peaceful private life. However, since I know that using society’s ignorance for my own personal gain is immoral, I want to declare my intention publicly. I will do everything in my power to remain faithful to my word - but, if I start to flake out, then I hope those reading this proclamation will remind me of my obligation.
Oh boy :-P.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 am
Who cares about morality when it’s about money? Ok, morality is important and we can’t forget about it as it’s keeping our world in one piece (sort of), but lets face the truth - you can’t do anything without money these days. Remember, Machiavelli used to say: “the end justifies the means” - who cares how did you win a lottery? The important thing is what you’re going to do with money. I guess in this case a reasonable thing to do is to finace a research to learn “how the hell did I win?!” lol
Maybe I’m a bad man, but I think that one should not worry about things other just don’t see ;).
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:27 am
Maybe reality requires me to make a moral commitment in order for me to win? Or maybe my subconscious requires it?
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Did previous winners of the lottery somehow stumble onto the way to “win” without realizing it? Or was that just ‘luck’, ‘coincidence’, or ‘chance’?
Your goal of using the money for other than self-fulfillment (or is it? :-P), and easy living, is admirable.
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
If you were to make an organization to research truth, I’d definitely join it.
It does seem like a moral way to go about it too, and I agree with SheepKing that it is admirable to not let yourself get taken by selfish thoughts. I wish you (a continued) good luck with winning!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:24 am
I’m running my own Lottery Project - in the first time it was just fun - I’ve “heard” numbers in my head, but I took wrong ticket (for wrong lottery) even if my sub-c was screaming “not this one, looser” - I ignored it, if I would listen I would hit 4 number out of 7 and I would be about 6 thousands dollars richer.
Second and third time I think I have focused too much on money, as a result I’ve hit only 3 out of 6 numbers winning in total $4 - but I spent almost $40 so not good :).
Now I’m changing tactics - I don’t want to win, I want to hit as many numbers as I can - see the difference? If I hit 4 or more our of 6, money will “come automatically”.
Sub-c is complicated “entity” - I think this tactics will trick it somehow as I won’t focus on winning a lot of money but on prooving myself “yes, I can do this”.
What is interesting - before first win I have made a deal with sub-c - “if I win, I will give 1/3 to my mom” - I did win (yeah, $2 lol) and I did give 1/3 to my mom. Maybe this will help someone :).
Right now I guess I have to make a quick deal with something to get $4 on my PayPal account so enough of this commenting.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am
“You can just buy new morals!”
Heh…well, once again, good luck, hope you win. ;=)
June 24th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
It has been my experience that no good deed goes unpunished. I know that’s pretty pessimistic, but that’s how things work for me. Where I’m going with this is that your long streak of not winning is probably the punishment, and the worse the punishment the greater the deed is.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Deathminister: I don’t understand your philosophy on that, or your general experience. Can you please explain it more in depth?
June 27th, 2008 at 1:52 am
I’d certainly be interested in joining your bankroll if you start an organization.
If the world truly is based upon a collective tug of consciousness, then yes, any conflict you have internally with obtaining something would be an obstruction to overcome. I believe this is in the foundation of the law of attraction; and even without a supernatural chain through everything, doubt is long known to hold a person back from achievement.
Pessimism is as well placed as optimism, in a neutral world; but the optimistic tend to have more determination to see their goal to the end.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:37 am
SheepKing: As far as general experience goes I guess I can only give examples. Because my neighbor got laid off and doesn’t have enough money to buy gas I went over and mowed his heightening lawn, as repayment he shot my lawn mowers tires out. I go to cut up a tree that is blocking people from moving, drive all the way out there and the chain saw breaks right when I start it…just as some examples. It just seems to happen consistently so I’ve pretty much accepted it as a truth. As far as it relates to this…it probably doesn’t and that was probably my least productive comment ever, but it was late (like now) and I felt I should say it.