Ellis and Charidee

[Mortimer's Bear]

Is there any such thing as a selfless good deed?

[kipeye]

Is there any such thing as a selfless good deed?

Indeed there is. Some people do things anonymously or without any recognition.

[neo_Villan]

Is there any such thing as a selfless good deed?

A-Level Philosophy all over again! I don't believe so myself. Yet in my assumption that those who give to charity do so out of guilt or to ease their conscience, I believe that this is ultimately admirable as there are many who do not have any empathy for those less fortunate.

[Jimbo]

If you're going to give, always give anonymously, or with a promise of anonymity. Otherwise, you're merely buying good karma.

[TopDeck113]

I'd rather have Doug give away £1.5 million of his money to the NSPCC than endure tomorrow's parade of celebrities begging for us to part with ours for Comic Relief.   

I do, however, agree with Damon that there are better "hands on" children's charities than NSPCC.  I'd have personally given it to, for example, Childline.

[Dave Cooper please]

Big fucking deal, it's a drop in the ocean to him after all the money he's made out of the Villa down the years.

A fucking damn sight more than most of the multi-millionaire players we have had over the years have bothered to donate.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Big fucking deal, it's a drop in the ocean to him after all the money he's made out of the Villa down the years.

But I bet its a relatively bigger drop of his net worth than anything the likes of Abramovich, Sullivan, Gold, Bates etc have ever dropped in a charity pot.   

[PaulWinch again]

I'm not sure the NSPCC is such a brilliant charity, if I'm honest. I used to have a standing order set up to donate money to them, but after a while I realised that they are just an 'awareness-raising' organisation. They don't intervene and prosecute in cruelty cases in the way that the RSPCA does for cases of animal cruelty. They don't fund care for victims. They just have the occasional PR campaign which amounts to a load of adverts saying 'hitting children is wrong'. And they sign up a load of celebs to back it, which is piss easy for them because everyone agrees that hitting children is wrong.

Maybe somebody can correct me if I am wrong here, but I felt that my £20 a month was just a way to make me feel good about myself.

Agreed my dad worked for a children's hospice for 7 years and the NSPCC were not particularly popular for the reasons you mention.

[neo_Villan]

It's always easy to write off such donations when it is someone else's money.

[cheltenhamlion]

As an aside, tomorrow I will be expected to part with pleny of cash for Comic Relief, just because we have some people taking phone pledges.

Its the same every year. When I won't get involved it is because I am not charitably minded. Which misses the point that I lay out for cancer, air ambulance, animal and lifeboat charities from my salary every month.

 

[Dave]

Is there any such thing as a selfless good deed?

Indeed there is. Some people do things anonymously or without any recognition.

That's not the point of the question. Whether they are recognised for it or not, if by doing a good deed, if that makes the person feel good then can it be truly selfless? Can there be a good deed, which by doing it makes yourself feel bad and therefore making it genuinely selfless?

I seem to remember it was the plot on one of the more tedious episodes of 'Friends'.

[pauliewalnuts]

As an aside, tomorrow I will be expected to part with pleny of cash for Comic Relief, just because we have some people taking phone pledges.

Its the same every year. When I won't get involved it is because I am not charitably minded. Which misses the point that I lay out for cancer, air ambulance, animal and lifeboat charities from my salary every month.

Is it safe to say that you do a lot of good work for charidee but don't like to talk about it, Chelts?

*wink*

[cheltenhamlion]

I don't normally, as it goes! And lest we forget my Doug and charity tale from GM's a short while back.

[UK Redsox]

Anything that's given to charity is more that they had before the donation. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether its a quid or a million, its all good.

[neo_Villan]

Is there any such thing as a selfless good deed?

Indeed there is. Some people do things anonymously or without any recognition.

That's not the point of the question. Whether they are recognised for it or not, if by doing a good deed, if that makes the person feel good then can it be truly selfless? Can there be a good deed, which by doing it makes yourself feel bad and therefore making it genuinely selfless?

I seem to remember it was the plot on one of the more tedious episodes of 'Friends'.

Indeed Dave. I don't believe an example has ever been given where the counter-arguement can't be made.