Strangers Drowning

Buchzusammenfassung

Larissa Macfarquhar is an editor and writer who has been working for The New Yorker since 1998. She has written many features on famous personalities, including Quentin Tarantino and Diane von Furstenberg. The daughter of diplomats, MacFarquhar lives in New York and Strangers Drowning is her first book.

Retail therapy, often criticized by utilitarianism for prioritizing personal desires over collective well-being, raises ethical questions about luxury spending amidst widespread unmet needs. Philosopher Peter Singer argues that prioritizing loved ones over strangers is morally indefensible under strict utilitarian principles. Altruism, while fulfilling, can come with sacrifices, as seen in the stories of Nemoto, a Buddhist monk who scaled back his suicide counseling efforts to preserve his health, and Baba, who prioritized his leper clinic over his wife’s needs. Literature often portrays selfless characters like Dr. Rieux in *The Plague* or Don Quixote as either dutiful or misguided, reflecting society’s complex view of altruism. Similarly, relationships like that of Bill and Lois Wilson, founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, reveal how altruistic efforts can intertwine with personal struggles, sometimes leading to dependency. True altruism, however, as demonstrated by individuals like Paul, who donated a kidney to a stranger, or Dorothy Granada, who risked her life to treat enemies during a Nicaraguan conflict, shows the profound impact of selflessness. While skeptics, including Charles Darwin, have linked altruism to self-interest, studies like Samuel Oliner’s research on Holocaust rescuers affirm that genuine altruism can exist without expectation of reciprocity.

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