Morality of making decisions for others

[fruityPebbles]

Hey all, this is a general question and I'm very curious what you think.

Suppose you are in a position where you see someone close to you, be they a friend or family or even a significant other and they have a hard decision to make.

You find that you yourself also have the ability to make that decision and you analyze the choice as what they want vs what would benefit them.

What they want leads to a proverbial train wreck, but it is likely the choice they make based on their history of decision making.

What they need will have them in a much better place in the future.

Of course making the choice makes you a bad person, but to you its fine if they hate you so long as you prevent the catastrophe that will happen. 

So is it better to be "the Batman Gotham deserves" or "the Batman Gotham needs"? (this has nothing to do with Batman  but my own life)

I use to make those decisions for people but realized many of my own life failures made me a better/stronger person and while my train wrecks in life sucked and I wished they could be avoided it benefited me to have them.

Further I realized in many instances I really made my own life worse losing friends damaging and ending long term relationships etc.

Maybe its better for everyone to simply be "the Batman Gotham deserves".

What say you?  and thanks!


The question at first seems a bit light, what if you could snap your fingers and remove illegal drugs,  alcohol, cigarretes and junk food specifically from those addicted to them.
You of course would receive allot of hate but at the end of the day you just cured allot of addicts. 
(then again addictive personality's find a new crutch that could be worse than the last)

[InbetweenDreams]

Hey all, this is a general question and I'm very curious what you think.

Suppose you are in a position where you see someone close to you, be they a friend or family or even a significant other and they have a hard decision to make.

You find that you yourself also have the ability to make that decision and you analyze the choice as what they want vs what would benefit them.

What they want leads to a proverbial train wreck, but it is likely the choice they make based on their history of decision making.

What they need will have them in a much better place in the future.

Of course making the choice makes you a bad person, but to you its fine if they hate you so long as you prevent the catastrophe that will happen. 

So is it better to be "the Batman Gotham deserves" or "the Batman Gotham needs"? (this has nothing to do with Batman  but my own life)

I use to make those decisions for people but realized many of my own life failures made me a better/stronger person and while my train wrecks in life sucked and I wished they could be avoided it benefited me to have them.

Further I realized in many instances I really made my own life worse losing friends damaging and ending long term relationships etc.

Maybe its better for everyone to simply be "the Batman Gotham deserves".

What say you?  and thanks!

It is a very slippery slope making decisions for other people. I have learned all to well that people are going to do what they want to do even if it means they're going to drive straight into a brick wall. That's important because if you're screwing yourself over by losing friendships because you tried to intervene into their life choices, then it is obvious that you have to pull back.

That being said, I think we need a little more context as what this is pertaining to. I mean it is clear that you're doing this because you genuinely care about your friend but often trying to intervene just causes more problems for you and often doesn't prevent them from doing whatever it is you think they should or shouldn't do.

[CellarDweller]

Making decisions for others is (IMO) not a good idea.

If that person follows your decision, and things go wrong, you will forever be held responsible.