Morality and Ethics

Morality is one of those subjects that few people seem to have the heart, stomach or courage to look deeply into. I find few discussions where people take the time to research the subject. Everyone seems to have an opinion though. Opinions are like assholes....everybody has one and usually they stink.

I do appreciate people who take the time and effort to at least attempt to address the issue with reason. Here and here are a couple of articles that do just that.

My favorite book on the subject is, The Science of Good and Evil. I see that there are plenty of videos on the subject. I am fascinated about The Evolution of Morality, but I haven't read that one yet.

So many good books and so little time and money, but I digress.

It seems to me that too much time is spent debating the origins or morality by people who are not adequately informed.

Key leverage points

Donella Meadows wrote a paper titled, Twelve Leverage Points; Places to Intervene in a System. I thought it was brilliant and I still do, so I recommend that you read it too. Perhaps you are already familiar with Who Lives in the "Global Village?" Anyhow, it had a profound effect on my thought along with Ken Wilber's AQAL model (the link at the botton of the page has some cool graphics). Contemplating those things along with the question of what an enlightened person would or should do in these times, I have drawn these conclusions.

Energy sources/usage, womens' rights, democracy, combating fundamentalism and reforming the materialistic consumptive culture are the key leverage points to creating something closer to utopia and farther from dystopia. I don't include education here because that is a given.

Energy sources is the point that most readers should be most familiar with. We all know that we depend on fossil fuels to keep civilization as we know it motoring along and that this is an unsustailable practice with some horrific consequences. Most of us know that we have enough knowledge and technology to transition to greener more sustainable energy sources. Unfortunately, there is significant "inertia and momentum" making this transition difficult. Part of the difficulty has economic compontents. Economy is in large part affected by polity, which leads us to Democracy.

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Democracy is a complex subject with many different forms. Let it suffice to say that democracy is better than tyranny. Democracy appears to be an antidote to war and famine. The Founding Fathers understood that democracy is a work in progress and we have a reminder of this printed on every one dollar bill. Democracy is a principle and a practice, and as such, a dicipline without end. We will forever be tasked with forming a more perfect union and it is this journey we would be wise to embrace, knowing there is no true end.

As a country, our sacred democracy has been compromised by the rise of a corporatocrasy, a kleptocracy of plutocrats, which is why I advocate a 28th Amendment to the Constitution. I besiech my countrymen to study this matter in earnest so that we may know how we have been screwed by those who have wittingly or not, garnered Unequal Protections in the blasphemous doctrine of corporate personhood.

As a race of peoples upon one precious planet, we would be wise to create more global democratic institutions. I advocate for new international democratic institutions to be formed. The United Nations is far from democratic. I am not aware of any country in which the People vote for their representative within the UN. The WTO and the IMF are organizations with increadible power, but they are far from democratic.

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Womens rights are key to making the world a better place. Women are just as smart as men and it is fooloish not to harness the intellect of one gender. Overpopulation of our species threatens global stability and we have seen that when women control their reproductive rights, populations do not grow at unsustainable rates. The feminist movement in developed nations has grown shamefully complacement, narrow and selfish. Our work can only end when all people have equal inalienable rights.

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Fundamentalism comes in many forms. Religious fundamentalism is what we are most familiar with and Islamic fundementalists are making it clear that they are the posterboys for the dangers of violent religious fundamentalism. Dangerous religious fundamentalism is not restricted to Islam however, and we should be aware of other crusaders.

Personally, I am opposed the exclusivity doctrine of any faith, that their way is the one right way. Humanity is one people with one planet in crisis, and religious divisiveness is an unnecessary evil in the world today. Thus, I support an interfaith alliance and any efforts that promote the loosening of religious literal interpetations and the embrace of a "spiritual, not religious" sentiment.

Other forms of fumdementalism are more subtle such as material reductionism, extreme pluralism, Randian objectivity, and free-market foolery, to name a few. It has been said that the price of freedom is eternal vigiliance. Perhaps that is because fundamentalism is a normal human tendency to cling to slimplistic explainations (a phase within a stage) with a limited mind in the face of an infinitely complex existence.

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Conspicuous consumption is a malady born from the marvels of an industrial age, an infection of greed in an economic system that has no upper limit to the accumulation of wealth. We know that there are not enough resources on and in this planet for the world to live the lives of relative opulance that the developed nations presently enjoy. We are beginning to understand the wisdom of Black Elk and we are learning that we cannot eat money. It is part of the foundation of all faiths that we must not get carried away with the glamour of the material world to become lost in mammon.

We stand at the threshold of a brave new world at the cross-road of fate. We can unite as one people on our sacred stone and usher in new world order that may sustain us for the next millenia, or bring the apocalypse of our destruction.

Why and who

I don't really like to write. It's too much like work that I don't get paid for and I type slowly, although I am getting quicker. So why do I blog? I'll try to explain.

I'll blame my parents for part of it. They didn't offer me much advice. Usually they told me to do what I thought was right. It was a bit maddening. I was just a kid. If I knew what was the right thing to do, I wouldn't be asking them. My father often told me that guilt was better than chicken soup. Now I suffer from a guilty conscience.

It's a crisis of conscience that motivates me to express myself. I am well aware that I stand on the shoulders of giants, leading a relatively privileged life of luxury. I know that if the rest of the world could live by our standards that we would need another four planets worth of natural resources. I know why we have all the cargo. I know the story of stuff.

I know that there are one-billion people who are literally starving every moment of every day. I know there are myriads of human, animal and environmental abuses happening all the time. I know that we are in the Earth's sixth mass extinction and we humans are the cause. I know that billions of innocents will pay the heaviest prices for problems they did not create. I know that power corrupts and money is power. I know that the Jeffersonian ideals that I hold sacred have been severely undermined by cabals of kleptocrats. I know that our present systems are unsustainable.

These things and more are almost always nagging me in the back (if not the forefront) of my mind.

But what can I do? I'm just a semi-educated blue-collar borderline poverty level middle aged guy with no extraordinary talents. What can I do?, is a question I've been asking myself for twenty years as I've struggled to grok the circumstance while working as a wage slave and trying to enjoy a somewhat hedonistic lifestyle.

I've learned how complex and interconnected things really are and how profound our problems have become. I've known despair and learned to hope within the blessed unrest.

There's no big thing I can do, but I can keep educating myself and try to share with others, chipping away persistently while supporting those who selflessly fight a righteous battle for the greater good.

By the vice of our being, we are all part of the problem. By the virtue of our being, we may all be part of the solution.

Snow way

It's a winter wonderland here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm one of the lucky who didn't loose power. 50,000 other people were less fortunate.

The dog in my life, Frodo, has been fun in the snow. It seems like this was his first experience with the white stuff. When we first tried to take him outside, he freaked and tried to run back inside. It only took him a few minutes to find the joy of snow. It was really fun watching him try to fetch the snowballs....they proved impossible to find, te he he he.

I'm getting my weekly dose of bs watching the Sunday morning talking heads. They're talking about health care now. Who really knows what is in the bill? I'm guessing that it wont help me get coverage because it's written by lobbyists and kleptocrats. They'll probably kick me when I'm down and strengthen the present pay-or-die system. The insurance companies have spent more than 250 million dollars fighting health care reform. That cant be good for us poor people.

How did we get here? This article sums it up pretty well. I'm just hoping that the present mess will serve to get more real progressives into office. I hope that those damn blue dogs get the boot along with the obstructionist republicans. And then there's Joe Lieberman.....doesn't anyone remember that he was instrumental in writting the legislation that made Enron, Worldcom, and all the other big collapses possible?

Maybe the right will reform if they take more losses. Could we see progressive republicans become the next right wave? How about Jeffersonian republicans? I'd like that. I just don't want to see conservative democrats.

The Good News

The good news is that we may have already done the worst of our deeds and we have accumulated enough wisdom and knowledge to create a virtual heaven on earth.
There is no longer a need to destroy our environment, to subjugate and exploit women, or to perpetuate unsustainable ways of life. We have experimented with enough politics to know what works and what doesn’t. We have crossed the threshold.

We deforested land to create agricultural fields and to fuel the smelting of metals, creating a cycle of ecological degradation. Deforestation creates desertification and created the beginning of human caused climate change. We now have enough cleared enough lands and accumulated enough agricultural prowess to feed the worlds masses. The continental United States now has more forested land than it had sixty years ago and numerous land trusts build upon the gains.

Government subsidies favoring corporate style industrial agriculture have driven the small family farms to the brink of extinction leaving untold acres of land, unused and waiting to be made fertile again. The collapse of the housing market has slowed the creep of urban sprawl providing us time to reconsider our course of action. For the first time in history there are an equal number of humans living in cities where centralized systems are better able to prudently process our wastes while the use of communal spaces reduce our energy needs.

Patriarchy was inevitable and necessary as population grew with ever more complex social structures and habitat became an increasingly competitive commodity as cultures collided in conflict. We know that human population pressures are a major contributing factor in the environmental degradation of the ecosystem. We know that when women have control of their own reproductive rights that procreation is relatively prudent. The developed nations in Europe, North America and Asia exhibit little or no population growth and some even have declining populations. The ability for women to control their own reproductive fate is the single key factor in ending the unsustainable population explosion of the human race. The quality of life enjoyed in developed nations is incredibly attractive to the people in developing countries and it is becoming clear that the riches of western civilization cannot be gained while half of a population remains subjugated and uneducated.

We have seen that healthy democratic functions serve society for the greater welfare of the populace. When collective welfare is considered sacred, peace and egalitarianism are the norm. When greed and indifference is considered a virtue, society and the environs will suffer. The economic collapse may serve as a wake-up call for those in the United States and other developed nations, a realization that unregulated commerce equates to unlawful business.

We have witnessed that unrestrained greed on Wall Street affects Main Street, not only in our own country, but around the globe. What was marketed as trickle-down has proven to be fraud. Economic disparity has increased at home and abroad for more than a generation as corporate power has subverted and corrupted the body politic. We are now experiencing a jobless recovery which may provide enough people the free time necessary to contemplate the errs of our ways and help us return to the virtues of traditional values such as compassion, justice, reason, care of the commons and democracy. It is time to return to the vision of the founding fathers, to create a new world order based on peace, liberty and justice for all. We can continue in the great work of forming a more perfect union.

We may be at peak oil production or beyond, but we have alternatives at hand. The technological gains from our unbridled energy consumption have given us the tools to create a green and sustainable future. We have the capacity and knowledge to harness the energy of water, wind, sun and earth to supply our energy appetites. Biofuels can be made from simple algae on lands that are presently unproductive.

lies

It might be unwise to lie to another, but it is assuredly foolish to lie to oneself.

We all lie. Lies come in many forms and degrees. Saint Augustine of Hippo outlined a taxonomy of lies. We even know that animals lie. Koko the gorilla was caught blaming the cat for her transgression. I've known dogs who deceive.

The proliferation of mass media seems to have made lies more common than truth. Do you believe what is broadcast on TV? What network(s) do you watch and trust? We might want to beware that the viewers of some stations have less factual content in their minds than viewers of other broadcasters. Not everything is merely opinion. In Lies We Trust is an eye-opener and kinda scary. I dare you to watch it.

The worst lies may be the lies we tell to ourselves, self delusion. But I wonder....does one need to be delusional to sell a war of choice under false pretenses or to modify scientific reports before they reach congress? Perhaps I should consult with Dr. Sanity. I like what he says about social subjectivism because I do think there is an objective reality.

"Probably the first prerequisite for accusing someone of engaging in self-delusion is that one must accept that there is an objective reality, external and independent to one's self; one's beliefs or one's emotions/feelings. Without such a fundamental epistomological foundation, it is completely meaningless to accuse anyone of self-delusion, althought postmodern intellectuals do it all the time."

"As they wallow in their preferred form of social subjectivism, it is perfectly "reasonable" (if that is the word) from their perspective to impute delusion to others--even if every time they do so, they effectively demonstrate the invalidity of their own philosophy. That is why it is so amusing to observe their appropriation of the term "reality-based community" -- when they don't believe in any reality except for their own emotions!"

Ken Wilber called it aperspectival madness (the definition is near the bottom of the page) and despite his keen insight, I think that he gets caught in the trap all too often.

So, what is the Truth and the truth about lies? Every one has to answer that for themselves but thankfully, we can all stand on the shoulders of giants, and have science and rationality to aid us on our search for empirical truth.

where is my electric car?

The glass teat brought something back to my attention....Who Killed the Electric Car? If you haven't seen it, you should. It's been playing on Green TV along with An Inconvenient Truth. Sometimes I think I should watch something like that every day, to keep me motivated and focused on what is really important. It's hard to stay focused and really hard to figure out what is truly important, but I digress.

I was thinking... now that We The People own General Motors we could just demand that they start producing the electric vehicles again. We can all send emails, snail mail, make phone calls and petition our elected representatives with requests or demands that GM start producing EVs again. Why not?

Yeah, I know. It's not that simple. Most of our elected reps are bought and/or hostage to special interests. And then there's the problem of the conspiracy that really did kill the electric car. Those people are hard to identify. Could Al Gore be involved or is it just good investing?

But seriously, try to learn who owns what. It's not easy to get a clear big picture through the foggy web of debt. One thing is clear, too few own too much. It's hard to blame another for wanting to look out for their own interests, but when one's interests are destroying the quantity and quality of life on this planet....where's the love?

Bi the Way

Bi the Way It's a documentary, about bisexuality of course. It would have flown under my radar, but I caught a little bit of it on LOGO while surfing for what to rot my mind with next. I turned it on just in time to see some scientific academic types talking about how the brain seems to be wired with three different functions concerning mate selection. That caught my attention, I'm a total freak, geek, enthusiast for pop-psyche and brain research kinda stuff.

Anyway, I hadn't really thought about it too much and was a bit surprised when I started searching and surfing for information. I shoulda seen it coming and I suppose that I did, but I didn't realize that I was just glimpsing at occasional tips of ice-bergs. But isn't that one of the great joys in life....the closer one looks, the more one finds.

protect marriage damn divorce

Protect marriage, make divorce illegal. Or maybe we should grant civil unions all, or at least most, of the perks that marriage entails. This is, after all, a response to those fearful bigots who oppose gay marriage.

I think it's nice to see the left using the same dirty tactics as the right. We're even hearing a little noise here in the bible belt. I'd like to make it an issue about the separation of church and state. Marriage is a religious institution. I'd like to see religion keep its nose outta my relationships. Sorry, I'm a bit anti-religious, although I am consider myself very spiritual.

Hot tips, points and runaways

What's the point in writing this blog? What was the point of the little local protest today?

The point is that we fear for the future and we have to live with our own consciences. It might not be our future, we might be dead by the time the really nasty shit hits the fan, but we do have to live daily with our conscience.

The more we learn about global warming, the scarier it looks, the more uneasy we feel. There appear to be tipping points that may precipitate run-away effects and points of no return. Here you can find the top ten that may cause extinctions. Here's where you can find a shorter list and links to pretty pictures that point to a disturbing future. And here is where you can find some more information along with video.

The very base of the ocean food chain, phytoplankton, is decreasing at a steady rate. If you think about it, it's scary. Read about it here.

This was a really good panel. They don't all see things in the same light, but they're all smart guys.

You can watch it here, but that's the beginning and it's the end of the discussion that gets really good.

too big to fail

I'm watching Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of Too Big to Fail on Booktv, c-span2. It was recorded 11/2/09 and it's good stuff, watch it.

Can institutions be too big to fail? There is some debate. All I know is that free-market fundamentalism is economic anarchy. George Soros thinks so too and he put his money where his mouth is. For some people, it's a moral issue.

Good thing Dubai is a relatively small. We may be saying, bye bye to Dubai.

Too bad it might be a sign as to our own commercial real estate markets.

conflated faiths

Do you have faith in science, god, religion, myth or all of the above? Can you differentiate between those items?

A recent poll reveals that about half of scientists believe in god or a higher power while 95% of Americans are believers.

One could draw conclusions. Science erodes religious faith. The pressures of social conformity and unresolved existential angst are roughly equivalent to rational tendencies for agnosticism, atheism and rejection of faith.

My conclusion is that we haven't differentiated these issues and they will remain conflated within our cultures for many generations. Heck, hardly anyone even knows what a mythicist or such a position is and the process of differentiating spirituality and religion has just begun.

our defining moment

It looks like we're missing our window and the climate change situation is as bad as we feared.

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said at the time, "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment." You can read the official story here.

With the economy, the wars, and the health care debate raging, there's little chance that there will be adequate attention or action to avert disaster.

One in four (25%) of American mortgage borrowers are under water now, but in a geologic blink of an eye there will be a lot more people with their homes under some very real water and billions will have almost no water at all.

Can We Survive? It's a question I think of often and now I'm wondering why the authors chose to state that the skills we need are on the verge of extinction....
"Part of the solution is to create and deploy what we have called “first-round survival technologies.” However, our current system of technology development discourages this; moreover, the entire category of skills required to create such multidisciplinary innovations is on the verge of extinction. "

The Right is Wrong

The Right is wrong, or so we progressives think. Here's what some neuroscience reveals. Yeah, it's not too revealing other than demonstrating that conservatives are more stubborn. Is one side more sophisticated, morally or intellectually? Most of us know that academia has traditionally been dominated by liberals. Perhaps it's just the workplace and relative income.

Inequality

The distribution of wealth has always been a contentious issue, not only in this country, but throughout history. Today's super-rich are far richer than those of the past. Note the graphs in wikipedia. The top 5% aren't included because it doesn't fit. The L-Curve puts it a little better perspective.

It's obscene. It's heresy in the spirit of religions and an affront to secular ethics and morality, but it was all Perfectly Legal. You can view the man here and here. We are living in the golden age of greed. I think that non-profit is a higher ethic than profit motive. Perhaps someday we will evolve beyond capitalism and live the Star Trek dream, but I doubt any of us will be around to see that day, unless 2012 really does bring an end of the world as we know it and destroys this new world order to replace it with economic democracy. It's up to us to make it so.

The truth is that inequality creates a host of problems; poorer physical and mental health, poorer education, more drug abuse, more imprisonment, less social mobility (though that may seem counter-intuitive), etc. Inequality is increasing, here in the USA and around the globe. The reason that we are witnessing the death of the middle class is pretty simple, tax structures. After the Great Depression, the tax rates on our nations richest was around 90%, but they still got filthy rich. Today their tax burden is less than one-third of that.

People in this country freak-out about taxes. That's because the rich can afford such great PR and they own the mass media. It's a crying shame that would make the Founding Fathers weep in their graves.

Anyways, you might want to check-out this mother-drucker.

One way to reverse this bad trend is to reclaim democracy. I doubt we need a course in ultimate civics, exercising the basics should be good enough. Another thing you can do is educate each other, use this great technology while we can. Be your brothers keeper.

who owns the news

Mass media is not what our Founding Fathers hoped for, but might be the sort of thing that they feared. Take a look here and get a glimpse of who owns what. Some people want to take it back. If you'd like to know more about your own back yard, try this.

Why should you care? Because good journalism and a well informed public could prevent unjust wars based on lies, or may have prevented the Wall Street Gang from blackmailing the taxpayers for a trillion dollars. We were warned, but nobody listened.

So far, you've had a glimpse of the companies, but what about the people? What about the interlocking directorate and why is it important? Because they rule. The CFR is a pretty scary organization if you ask me or some other people.

It's a damn kleptocracy, but we're doing pretty good if you look at the bigger picture. We can do better though.

Pay or Die

I sure wish I had some decent health care. I don't earn enough to buy into our present pay or die system.
Here's an interesting link about health care systems from around the world. It's not too hard to correlate the data with world rankings. I'd make it easier, but I am a bit of a cybertard.

Sometimes I wonder...are we too stupid or arrogant to learn from the rest of the world? But I know it's not that simple.

The Nobel Prize winner says, Reform or Else.
I couldn't agree more, I'm uninsured and getting older every moment.

There are supposedly 45,000 people that die each year from health problems because they are uninsured or under insured or because they have insurance plans or HMOs that just plain suck. Some people are getting divorced because they can get their children covered as single parents when they cannot as a married couple. It's crazy.

Some indifferent jerks argue that no one in this country is denied health care because emergency rooms take everybody. As if there's no difference between preventive care and trauma.

If we had universal health care like all the other developed nations do, our business sector would no longer carry the burden of the costs of health care. Wouldn't it be nice to get the economy back on track? One of the big reasons that the US auto manufactures are failing to compete in the global marketplace is that they pay for the health care of the laborers unlike all of the competing countries (many of which also subsidize the manufactures).

Any one who owns a business, especially those with employees, should be an advocate for universal health care. Unfortunately, what should be is quite different from what is and those with the most money have the loudest voices while the courts condone corporate lies. Okay, so that's wild hyperbole, but I remember the days when there were truth in advertising laws.

Meanwhile, CEOs like Steven Hensley of United Healthcare are being "compensated" 700 million dollars for their services. It's obscene and immoral. How many need to die so a few can be filthy rich?

Positive Crap

It's been bothering me for years now and I'm happy to see that there are others, more eloquent than I, who have shared their perspectives.

Stuart Davis produced a fun piece, The Secret: The Spirituality of Narcissism. I do get tired of the remedial use of the AQAL model though. Personally, I like all the pretty images.

And I sure would like to get my hands on Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Bright-Sided which you can read and listen to a bit of if you so choose. Or, you could watch a little video on the subject.

Uncounted

I'm watching another reminder of what I feared. Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections is another must-see for any and all Americans who have good faith in our electoral system.

It makes me wonder what the real vote counts were in the last big election. I also wonder how the good people of black-box are doing.

It's the money, stupid

Money may not be the root of all evil, but it sure is at the heart of most of our most pressing problems. It's big money that has corrupted our political system. It's big money that has undermined the legitimacy of our media. It's big money that has us locked into fossil fuel dependence and unsustainable economy. It's the money that leaves us with one of the worst health care systems in the developed world. It's big money that has corrupted our hearts and minds.

Don't take my word for that though, listen to the confessions of an economic hit man.

The problem is that there is no upper limit to the accumulation of so called wealth. It's obscene, but there are some who believe in responsible wealth. Who really holds the wealth? Check this out. I found the bottom of the page to be particularly interesting.

It was only about fifty years ago that the highest tax bracket was about 90%. President Reagan accelerated the big change leading us away from the golden age of the middle class and it was all perfectly legal. You can hear it from a Pulitzer-prize winner if you don't believe me.

Who are all of these super-rich fat cats creating an ugly new world order? Ask Daniel.

If you haven't seen The Obama Deception, just click. If you'd like something on the lighter side, try some Steven Colbert.

Oh yeah, if the conspiracy stuff disturbs you...try to remember that the solution to the problem is to create healthy democratic institutions. A government Of, By and For The People may still be a dream, a dream that too many people have died for, but it's still our dream. We also might want to remember that this is not only an American dream, but a global dream. If we build it, will they come?

Perhaps the reason that we can't get our economic house in order and have to put Wall Street ahead of Main Street is that we can't afford the possibility of capital flight. Too bad Joe couldn't be a little more candid about it. I'd throw in another Colbert Report link, but it's not posted yet.