/sci/ - Science & Math

>>8388950

I realize that. I realize that every once in awhile we get a productive schizophrenic like John Forbes Nash, Jr.

But what happens to all the other mentally ill people?

I remember a few years back watching this documentary called "Lost Angels" about the homeless living in Skid Row, Los Angeles. There's about 6,000 homeless people living in Skid Row, one of the largest stable populations of homeless people here in the US, and this place is only a few miles east of here.

Now, of course, I'm sure that I'm about to get responses like, "oh? You feel so sorry for those homeless people, why don't you go out there and help them instead of sitting here all day posting in this thread?"

See this post here to see the sort of reactions I've gotten whenever I've given homeless people handouts:

>>8386860

But let's say that I do decide to go out there to some homeless shelter, and help out in some soup kitchen.

And I just know how it's going to turn out. The experience will be like every other experience in my life.

People will just look at me and think, "this guy will only be here this one time to feel good about himself. He wants to prove to everyone how much of a nice guy he is. And then he's just going to leave and never come back. He doesn't really care."

Is there such a thing as a "selfless act"? How could I help people and it be completely "selfless acts" when in the end I'm still getting something out of it? I'll feel good about myself. I'll feel good knowing that maybe people will finally think of me as a better person, that I'm not selfish after all.

Maybe I should point out anecdotes in my past in which I've tried helping somebody out, like what I described in this post here:

>>8386860

Which happened nearly 10 years ago. But what good would such anecdotes do when I can't even prove to anyone that they really happened? And besides, all I'll really be doing in trying to prove to everybody that I'm not a selfish person after all.