What is good and what is bad?

 

Good is whatever keeps me alive and happy

Bad is whatever kills me or makes my life miserable.

Good is impossible without freedom. Freedom includes freedom of choice.

It may seem freedom includes the freedom to harm others but that is not true because harmed people will most certainly seek to harm you therefore restricting your freedom and hampering your quest for happiness and even jeopardizing your life expectancy…

What is a false claim for ethical behavior? A claim that whatever is good for the majority must be imposed on the minority – it’s a recipe for fascism, communism – oppression and extermination of those considered not useful to society and even those who may be considered useful but due to their convictions – unreliable. Judging that whatever is good for the majority is good for everyone can also be used to justify for example slavery. Slave labor in the USA before the civil war brought wealth to the nation yet the nation went to a fratricidal war to abolish it. So whatever is done for the common good but ignores the interests of the minority and the smallest unit of minority is the individual cannot be good.

That’s why freedom is important and also because a society of free people with various opinions and experience tends to be more knowledgeable and better equipped for progress and problem solving when needed.

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Does “society” even exist?

 

Mish Mash for busy minds

There is no such thing as "society” just an useful invention of sociopaths to exploit the gullible.

Society as something opposed to the individual is a travesty. The only useful use of the term is if it serves me.

There is no such thing as “society” apart from the personal interests if its members and only in the sense those members understand them – not as some other people or group will try to impose on them.

Any claims of primacy of the common good over personal interests betray either personal confusion and a repulsive “holler than you” self-righteous ignorant attitude or exploitative hypocrisy  in a brazen attempt to shame you into submission.

As with the wise Emperor of China who was the wisest person in the land because he was able to learn something even from the dumbest person so everyone of me and you is an emperor of our individual destiny. Free to set up our own goals and devise the means to achieve those goals. Free to succeed and free to fail including free to learn from that or ignore the lesson.

Mish Mash for busy minds

I am

 

I am the way, the truth and the life….

The most important egoist – that’s Me!

Knowledge and cooperation are the two most important tools that the individual has to survive and succeed.

Knowledge – for obvious reasons – to be able to achieve his or her dreams, satisfy desires and learn how to yearn for more.

Cooperation for the same reasons – plus to disincentivize other people from encroaching on one’s life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

There is a story about a Chinese emperor who was the wisest person because he could learn something even from the dumbest person he met. And the dumbest person was dumb due to being unable to learn even from the wisest emperor.

Knowledge not only provides the means to achieve one’s goals but also clues on how to do that easier, lazier, more efficient – it teaches us shortcuts.

But there is irrelevant knowledge some would say – like astronomy, for example.

That may seem so.

But when Neanderthals were competing with our ancestors for a place in the future – we  won because we were more creative. The Neanderthals were bigger stronger and only engaged in inventing new tools when those tools seemed to obviously bring some immediate advantage. They also had art and possibly rudimentary faith. But we – had more – better art, stronger faith, more curious minds and that’s why we survived and they didn’t. That’s why we need astronomy, rock music, comedy and all the other good but seemingly useless stuff that we do and enjoy.

And yes knowledge gives us the idea of shortcuts and one of the most useful shortcuts is to exploit your neighbor. Doesn’t seem ethical but it works.

Mish Mash for busy minds

Vision and Bias

Without vision people perish! But how do we know if the vision is right?  How do we distinguish good from evil,, right from wrong? If evil works for   me if it helps me in my search for happiness then probably I should stick with it. In reality though evil is likely to antagonize potential supporters , make you feel bad about yourself create determined enemies and ultimately end bad for the perpetrator.  

On the other hand or from a different perspective - ignorance leads to bias and bias leads to errors. Everyone makes errors only those who do nothing don’t make any errors. You may chose to learn from your (and others’) errors or you may choose to ignore them and suffer repeatedly.

You Are What You Are

Ethical values are universal but our understanding of those values is developed and expressed in relation to historically defined circumstances and the individual's understanding of how goals defined as common can serve that person's private interests.

You are not what you, what you know and what you believe. You are not your race, nationality and culture. You are not even your family.

You are you!

And only as you you can be part of a family, company, nation or faith. You can only be really to anyone including yourself by being unique. Because that is the only human way. A human being is not a product of or cog in the mechanism of society. Society is the product and servant of its members, not the other way around. To put the records straight – it's not what you can do for you country it's what you country can do for you and if your country doesn't do it for you – you can and must change the government – it's in the Declaration of Independence. (and I see the Declaration of Independence as a document not only of American but of universal significance).

Bees and ants are social animals – people are individuals with personal differences, preferences and dreams.

The humanness of is ultimately the good life but it is creativity which makes the connection between dreams and realty between life as it is and life as we want it to be, life as it should be! And because that is something very difficult if not impossible to achieve on my own – I need the help of other people. People who are either keen to build my dream or at least a similar one or people who would help me realize my dream in exchange of me helping them achieve theirs.

And those dreams might be castles in the sky or something more practical like security, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Th achieve these goals we create associations, nations, institutions and other tools and mechanisms – but that doesn't mean that these constructs are what we are at least nor more than the clothes that we wear are what we are. There are just means to an end to be changed and discarded when they no longer serve their purpose.

And that purpose is – make no mistake and repeat after me in a loud voice – to help me chase my dreams, not yours – my dreams and of course we can talk about how chasing your dreams might help me chase mine or we can fight over that (although that is more expensive and not at all productive).

Still I am in the center of my world and you are in the center of yours and only by fiercely preserving our personal freedom can personal security, and the personal pursuit of happiness be possible at all. Only unity in diversity works, unity without diversity is a dangerous illusion that makes life miserable for everyone involved.

If faith and ethics mean anything in life they must bring real profit

But what is ethical and what isn't. Eve's pursuit of divine wisdom doesn't seem to have yielded any tangible results. I know there are uncountable sets of rules and regulations - legal, religious, cultural and whatnot. And most of them are very useful and going against them can get you into real trouble even if your indiscretion is not discovered by the relevant authorities. I am not talking about divine intervention because it seems that God more often than not looks the other way when the good are crushed and evil prevails. To sum it up life's different from an old Western with a happy ending. Perhaps there is some higher purpose or perhaps the atheists are right and the only real law is the law of the jungle of a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye.

Do moral principles work at all? Could there be a workable set of rules worthy of keeping by providing adequate return for the good guys apart from the questionable place in that luxury retirement home - Heaven - resplendent with scores of virgins singing boring hymns? What if there is no afterlife and we just die and rot which seems rather obvious except for that atheist Richard Dawkins who reckons we live forever in physical form through our own immortal selfish genes. And we are destined to live in this real, material and fluid world which could be Heaven or Hell depending on perspective, luck, attitude and the results of your actions.

Can you judge others and complain about their actions - yes you can but that is mostly a waste of time because you have to look at yourself first). If you don’t like the world you’ll have to start  and from the man in the mirror and be the change you want to see in the world. To look deep inside and find that divine God given soul or genetic predisposition for survival - depending on how you prefer to call it. Because that idea/form/gene/meme/soul that will survive is the only thing that matters. There is the way of life and the dead end of death. There is a way to learn to be immortal - we are all offspring of a race of survivors - all the way back to Adam and Eve. So we have inherited a treasure of useful knowledge and a lot of nonsense (there were people who believed you have to kill someone to make the sun rise or kill an innocent child to win a battle). I don’t covet the neighbor’s donkey or his ass and we all believe his partner in life is free to choose. Still if I treat my neighbor badly and disrespect his right to life, liberty and to choose the way he pursues happiness than most probably my neighbor will disrespect my rights and property. And then we’ll both be in real trouble.

And if you ask whether you are your brother’s keeper then he might be asking the same silly question too.

Thoughts by Jesus, Ghandi, Buddha, Petar Danov were used throughout the text.

Who Needs Morals?

So Eve, God and the Snake conspired to teach Adam some ethics the hard way. Gone was the easy life of tree fruits and air-conditioned paradise. Now he had to work for his food and shelter. Also, regardless of the tens of thousands of years of experience, in sin and good deeds it seems Adam's and Eve's descendants haven't learnt a lot about morals. On the bright side though (one must always think positive) Adam didn't have steak, beer, or fried chicken in paradise and we suspect there was no sex too so he (and Eve) had gained something. And if we include the joys and trials of motherhood and fatherhood then humanity has had an opportunity to feel the frustration of trying to to teach good and bad and seeing no results. Just like God.

On the other hand the way Adam and Eve's descendants have set up a society in which, regardless of declared principles, deception, manipulation and coercion are the preferred methods to get what you want. So obviously wrong and frustrating was that that Buddha decided that all desires must be wrong. But without desires Adam will return to his vegetative state of the pampered gardener of Paradise – with no freedom, no pursuit of happiness and frankly no life to speak of.

Perhaps if your passion is focused on higher purpose you will achieve worthy goals but what if your passion is drifting towards something horrible – than if Nature or the Divine are cruelly fair then your self-destructive wish may be granted too.

When man became good at accumulating the things that he wanted three things became obvious = first, that with your neighbor’s help you could produce more, second, it’s easier to steal the fruit of your neighbor’s labor instead of laboring yourself, and third, with the help of your neighbor you can easily overcome the resistance of your other neighbor when you are stealing the fruits of his labor. Unfortunately that other neighbor might have figured out the same arrangement before you did.

Centuries of trial and error led to the universal understanding that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights - not because that sounds good but because it is in my personal interest. Obviously without life there cannot be any appreciation of happiness and without the freedom to choose your own path to happiness it can never be real happiness.

Without the freedom to choose to know what is good and bad Adam and Eve couldn’t have been created in God’s image!

Adam and Eve - Ethics, God and ME!

It is part of the Bible that has always perplexed me. I hope to somehow understand it sometimes. I believe I will regardless if it happens as a result of conscious analysis or an epiphany.

It is the story of Eve with the apple (i wonder if Steve Jobs hasn’t named his company after that particular apple:-). The story goes like that - God creates a man and a woman and leaves them in the Garden of Eden where they can live happily by eating the fruits of the heavenly plants. There is one catch though - they are not allowed to eat the fruit of one particular tree - the Tree of Wisdom which will make them know the difference between Good and Bad and eventually make them Godlike. One day - when Adam is asleep (presumably after downing a couple of beers out of boredom - remember he is not working and there is nothing worse or more dangerous than an idle man;-) Eve - the woman wanders by the tree and is seduced by a talking snake (some say Satan him or herself or the devil though at that point of time the ancient Jews seem to not have developed the concept of the devil so let’s just settle on a talking snake) to try one of the fruits of the Tree of Wisdom which remember will make her equal to God by giving her the understanding of what is good and what isn’t. Being naturally sociable Eve wakes up her snoring mate to share this remarkable opportunity. Adam is a bit wary - he prefers the lazy life of doing nothing and knowing nothing (more like the three Japanese monkeys who cover their eyes, ears or mouth) but Eve doesn’t accept Confucian excuses and he reluctantly shares in the forbidden fruit and presumably the knowledge of what is good and what is bad (for him it kind of worked more in the realm of sports, unhealthy food, alcohol and female appearance than any deeper philosophical or ethical insights that would bring him closer to God). Anyway both ate the forbidden fruit (often depicted as an apple but I don’t think it is described as an apple in the Bible and actually Steve Jobs named his company after the Beatles’ Apple which created some problems - then again perhaps the Beatles named their company after the apple from the Garden of Eden or it was a conspiracy between them and Steve).

After they ate the forbidden fruit they noticed they are naked and tried to hide their genitalia with a fig leaf - later called modesty patch and still sometimes used by contemporary politicians or other celebrities (at least by those of them who still care) and who have suddenly realized there is some kind of indecency in their lives.

Obviously that was an act of direct insubordination to God’s orders and God expel the curious couple from the Garden of Eden and gives them the whole world to explore. That exploration will be accompanied by suffering (including at childbirth for the woman) and they will have to work for their food and other essentials (including fig leaves).

That’s what they proceed to with them and their descendants suffering the consequences of this so-called original sin. That is the Judaist version. The Christian interpretation will add to that that Jesus by his death of the cross somehow absolved humanity of this original sin and now we can breath freely without feeling guilty about it and presumably sin as much as we want because we are miraculously “saved”.

I have a problem with that. Not with the story itself - I consider it as one of the most profound parts of the Bible (it just doesn’t speak to me clearly enough yet) but the blasphemous interpretations.

Imagine if you are a teacher and have just told this story to a bright little child and ask the poor kid about the moral of the story.

The most likely answer will be -

If you disobey someone powerful like God or a parent you are most likely to get a lovely present - like this whole beautiful world.

My mother, grandmother and sister are bad and all bad in my life is their fault. There must be

a way to get back to them for that.

There  must be something wrong with people in general even after having eaten from the Tree of Wisdom - of knowing what is right and what is wrong - they still seem to have difficulties telling right from wrong in words and deeds and precariously far from any useful wisdom.

But if God indeed is our creator wouldn’t God like us to be independent as every normal parent will? And if that is so wouldn’t God want us to know the difference between good and evil? And if that is so wouldn’t God try to entice Eve with the knowledge that will make humanity created in God’s image truly godlike (Adam being happy like a vegetable in the Garden of Eden fed and protected without the need to exert any effort at all).And wouldn’t we the people be happier and more thankful if given the freedom to pursue happiness whatever that means for each and every one of us?

It seems the whole world history from the first human beings until now points towards that. We don’t seem to long for a carefree living in a garden that we haven’t planted ourselves and we are not responsible for. And if all that was God’s plan it seems we are doing pretty well. A parent would have been proud with a humanity that regardless of all our deficiencies, errors and crimes ultimately find a way to rise from the dust, repent, reflect and proceed further.

Even if you don’t believe in miracles you have to be realistic and agree that is quite a miracle in itself.

What You See Is What You Get

What you see is what you get in live. If you know more you will get it easier. Understanding how the world works is critical to achieve ones goals easier. That knowledge comes from reflection on personal and others' experience. By reflection I mean both creating assumptions on cause and effect relationships and analyzing the result of testing these assumptions in real life. Personal experience is the most expensive but most reliable method of testing these assumptions and it relates them to our personal goals, interests or desires more closely than others. An experiment or in other words an artificial model of reality to test our theories is cheaper than real life experience but can be inaccurate or misleading due to the necessary simplification of that reality. The danger of self deception is even greater when applied to complex phenomena like society, business and especially politics.

But if personal experience leads to better knowledge wouldn't that also mean that personal theories of happiness, ethics, economics and politics are better than general ones. And indeed that is the logical conclusion. General theories are always weaker and less informative than personal ones. That doesn't meant that the are unnecessary – we need them to establish understanding between us so we can get other to help us achieve our goals which would be difficult (if not impossible unless one resorts to coercion) if we don't have a shared system of values, meanings and beliefs on the projected results of certain actions. Coercion is bad not because of some obscure commandment but because it can only achieve short lived results deceptively easy. The results will be short lived and the whole coercive enterprise a waste of resources because anything that does not develop is bound to die out. The only way to improve the results from coercion is by more coercion thus inevitably causing more resistance until the balance tips over against the perpetrator of coercive practices. It's a futile exercise and that makes it bad policy to pursue.

Ethics, Rights, Identities and Interests

Ethics, Rights, Identities and Interests
Ethical considerations have no meaning if they do not lead to better life for the participants in a social interaction. The road to hell is paved with good intentions (Dante). Due the complexity of modern life, though, it is often difficult to foresee the consequences of a certain action. That calls for the creation of rules of behaviour based on a concept of universal rights. It could be that in a disconnected world people can attempt to create a particular concept of rights applicable only to their group (that is what sects do) but that is impractical if impossible in an interconnected world. Rights are there to protect interests which on their part are how people perceive their need and that perception can be right or wrong. As this process itself is complicated and human beings are inherently lazy and bound to look for an easier way out we look for group identities in addition to our individual one to help us comprehend the world around us and the pursuit of our goals in it. (Additionally choosing a group identity can help us discover our true individual identity or further obscure it and destroy our personality.)
These ideas of ethics, rights, identities, and interests are constantly constructed , remodeled and abandoned in society and the more they correspond to material reality the more successful the societies and individuals employing them are. Also the fact that ideas are socially constructed does not mean that they are not real or arbitrary. The fact that they people use them to guide their actions makes ideas a powerful material force worth studying even as for most people social relations are much more important for the quality of their lives than interaction with nature. And the dependence of success and failure of any human endeavor on the relevance of ideas to reality consisting of nature and other ideas makes arbitrary choice of ideas a dangerous path to follow and therefore it is not so common.
People and communities chose ideas of ethical behavior, rights and identities based on their understanding of their interests. Therefore the study of interests seems like a good starting point for any inquiry into society and politics.