Friday, March 11, 2016

Honesty, truth and the future

If you want a change, make a change. The future is changed in the present. There are no fairies or other supernatural occurrences. We life from birth to death; that is all there is. It is in this life that we must do our good dead's, else we will be... well what is the people based punishment... shunned? excluded? exiled? imprisoned? sent to work camps? ignored? disinherited? die off alone or with a group of other derelicts? what? 

When we look around the world, religion and those seeking power create considerable problems. Or they are pushing some religion. If they also want wealth, and choose to take land and property by force, and force a group of subjects to believe something, that is just wrong. ISIS, Syria, and the whole Islamic world is doing this, and it is just wrong. And then there is South Sudan. General depopulation of the region -- is the nice way of describing the situation, but just wrong.

We can take any religion and divide the teachings into two heaps, virtues and explanation by story. The explanations by story are just story, they are trying to explain something they do not understand or have the words to describe. These are largely irreverent to much, but are just story. Then there are the virtues which they wish to force on people. Some are good, some are bad, and then there is priority. What was relevant 1500 years ago is just irrelevant today, or has different priorities, and yet some is more relevant today. Though shalt not kill, steal, take, misappropriate, have sex with, or sexual depravity, other forms of  enslavement, force to act in specific ways, general moral behaviors, are just as important today as ever. How we think is somewhat irrelevant, just as long as we have suitable moral behaviors and values; but without reason, we cannot have knowledge, and without knowledge, we are unlikely to have peace. Peace is not as severe as non-violence, for with true non-violence, even police would not be needed. That should be the target, but knowing we can never really achieve that.

So what is needed is a universal moral code of behavior for all peoples and voluntary adherence to that code. "Do unto others as you would they do unto you", or the Confucianism contra claim of "Do not do unto others those things which you would not accept to be done to you" may be better places to start. There is considerable space between these two guidelines. Doing something to people "for there own good", even when they are opposed, must also be forbidden. They may need to hurt to see the light of a better way. Pain is changeful. 

Now the big question is how to reach people who do not want to change because they are "right", everybody else is wrong? I, being right, is the only way to have confidence. If there was wrong done, it was done by others. What I say are virtues and virtues and must be followed... ayh, sure. Non-violence must be one of the founding values, and a system of virtues that all good people can follow must be worked out, and sold to the masses. If it is complete enough, others will adopt it, this I must believe. Non-aggression, must be a founding policy. Then there is the question of how does one compel those who do not wish to adhere to the policy, and there will be the evil ones who see a greed based path forward? It must be complete enough not to need any god concept, so acceptance of doubt and living with not knowing must be part of the belief system.

We live in an overpopulated world. We need to control the population else-wise there will be much suffering. Perhaps a monk movement... the brother hood and sister hood of free thinkers.... to take ourselves out of popular society... and form the new order ... and in several generations... but wait we need to celibate... so we would need to grow by taking in people ... like the Shakers... to create a world ethics code... world moral code... virtue code...

Is anyone interested in developing fleshing out the concept...

Honesty, truth, non-violence, compassion...  What do I know anyway?

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