When reading Rhy Southan’s article “Is Art a Waste of Time”, a lot of ideas caught my eye. Effective Altruism is a movement that focuses on reasoning and evidence in order to help people in the most effective ways. A member of this movement Holly Morgan explained her thoughts on well-being. As stated by Morgan, “We want everyone to be happy and fulfilled, and we promote anything that leads to humans and animals feeling happy and fulfilled.” She mentioned that Effective Altruists do not care about about concepts of beauty or knowledge, and rather more about the overall well-being of people. Morgans ideas are very pure and focus on the overall idea of well-being that is shown with the movement. I agree with her proposals, as our goal as humans is to obtain ultimate happiness for all. Relating this article to a health profession I’m pursuing, my goal someday will be to help others in acquiring health and happiness. Morgans words about well-being grasped my attention as I will demonstrate qualities such as care and empathy in my future career.
The author’s conclusion at the end of the article about the idea of art and expression pointed out the importance of making an impact in the world. As stated by Southan, “I thought that writing a movie was the best way for me to contribute to the world, I was almost certainly kidding myself.” The ideas of Southan grasped my attention as he feels that there is so much to contribute as one should strive to make a strong impact. I agree with the words of Southan, as being members of society we have the ability to make great impacts in this world, especially in helping others. I enjoyed how the author mentioned that people believe that writing a movie is a strong contribution, when it could be more than just that. I believe that there is never a limit to which one can contribute, as everyone has meaning to the world.