The Point of Reference

I believe having a single, overruling point of reference can be unimaginably useful.

How do you measure the severity of a problem? How do you measure a valiant act of good? Or unspeakable act of evil? Wouldn’t it be useful if in any given situation you could make the right decision, or easily decide where your focus should lie?

A point of reference solves all of these problems.

Say for example, you are in the position of Bill Gates, with a current net worth greater than what any middle class Australian is likely to earn in their entire life. You have decided, contrary to many other billionaires, that you wish to spend your money on improving the lives of others, on solving problems. How do you decide where your money goes? Do you invest your time and energy into saving people from diseases? Do you focus on improving the situations of those living in extreme poverty? Do you instead try to improve the current economic and political system so that these other problems become irrelevant?

This speculation revolving around the concept of a point of reference leads us to another question:

What is most important?

Is it life? Freedom? Order? Can this question truly be answered with logic and analysis?

I personally believe that the point of reference, the vital component for quick and efficient decision-making, is one of the few things which cannot be created from logic alone. I believe there is no rule for this particular problem. Emotion and intuition instead must take over and guide us towards a suitable answer. Emotion and logic can and must work together.