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I've been thinking about our class discussion and about this idea of people being driven by a hierarchy of needs and physical survival being the most basic one. But then I got to thinking about martyrs. Here are people that know that they will die for what they believe in. That belief can be a religious one, or a principle. And there are also suicides. People who think that their life, for whatever reason, is no longer worth living. These two groups, at least, validate the notion that it is possible to place greater value on things other than your life and to die for them.

As for the "correctness," "goodness," and "righteousness" of any of these values, I can't say. Is Keith more "evil" than Lauren? Is Lauren "good." Which is better, to steal/kill in the name of survival/better lifestyle and helping one's family, or to steal/kill in the name of survival and helping one's new community? Perhaps the big difference is that Keith stole/killed preemptively, before the initial community was destroyed? I'm not sure. Lauren is more appealing to me because, whatever her actions, her impetus seemed to be gradually, more and more based on helping others as well as herself, instead of just herself. But then, what makes that so appealing? I know in this culture, we place a value of "goodness" on selflessness, and I understand the theory that if we all focus on helping each other, we're helping ourselves, but that notion seems so distant and candy-coated in a situation such as Lauren's.

I mentioned to Paul, how this whole notion of co-operation instead of competition reminds me of the situation we find ourselves in regarding nuclear weapons. Idealistically, every country that possesses them will dismantle every single one and nuclear arsenal would be internationally eradicated. But who goes first? And how can we trust everybody to do it?

This makes me think of the Honor Code at school. There is a system of trust in play, that we will be academically and socially honest with one another. And I've been amazed at people's general honesty at this school. But the dorms still have locks on them. There's a limit.