The System Part 1:Moral & Ethics Created 18 years ago2005-05-13 10:50:30 UTC by Phuture Tech

The System, Part I: Moral & Ethics

[i]This is far not the first time you see a topic named like that, but all such have been deleted, because they turned into flame wars. I believe it is a result of misconception rather than stupidity that causes this ?transformation? of topics and in order to prevent this from happening I?ll explain a couple of things before starting the actual debate.[/i]

What is moral? A simple question it might seem, but few can really answer it. Most of the time it?s being misunderstood and ignored as being of little or no importance. Especially in English it can be mistaken as ?morale? which is a military issue and has nothing to do with reality. Most of all, moral is the combination of ideas and feelings that allow us to determine what is good and bad. There are other descriptions of moral but some of them are far from the truth. To make things easier, here?s the description I?m following: 

Morality is a complex of principles based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which an individual determines whether his or her actions are right or wrong. These concepts and beliefs are often generalized and codified by a culture or group, and thus serve to regulate the behaviour of its members. Conformity to such codification may also be called morality, and the group may depend on widespread conformity to such codes for its continued existence.

It might seem a bit complex at first, so I?ll explain it: Moral is the combination of rules determining the relationships between humans. It is the one thing that acts as a ?law of behavior? and it keeps our society from collapsing. Now you see it?s quite important and you should give a little more attention to it next time.

Ethics on the other hand is the study of moral rules and concepts. It allows us to examine how moral actually works and then we could analyze it and make a valid conclusion on its level in certain closed society or on the whole Earth as a global society.

Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the "science (study) of morality". In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is "good" or "right." The Western tradition of ethics is sometimes called moral philosophy. This is one part of value theory (axiology) ? the other part is aesthetics ? of the four major branches of philosophy, alongside metaphysics, epistemology, and logic.

As you can see it?s not just this, but it is also the discipline, uniting all sciences of human psychology. It is quite complicated matter so we won?t delve deep into it.

Now that I?ve cleared all possible misunderstanding I can continue with my analysis. Throughout history moral has evolved a lot and if in the dawn of humanity it was all concerning the survival of the tribe, later the moral was changed by religion and dogmas and now it?s being rewritten. It is true that most of the old moral rules are impractical for today?s world and some of them are actually wrong (especially the ones created by religion, but this is the topic of a future conversation). But as you might guess the modern society is shaped by the media, video games, politicians and the like of these. And if you expect anything good to come out of this you?re totally wrong. The leading units need nothing but blind masses that can be directed easily. I know I can hardly change this, but if I can open the eyes of just some people then I?ll be happy.

I hope you take this seriously, because the lack of moral or its misconception is one of the major issues of the modern society. And if we want to change anything this is the perfect place to start from.

Chapter 1:Personal Opinion

This is not the first thing the human being encounters while building its personality. The reason to start with it is because the disrespect of others opinion is wide spread in this forum. I hope I can ?cure? at least some of you from this disease?

Everyone has the right of a personal position and disrespecting it is nothing but stupid. Keep reading and you?ll find out why. The freedom of choice is in the base of democracy. And trying to be a democratic community we should allow everyone to describe his position. And if it is wrong don?t just start yelling and flaming but use the facts to your advantage. If you?re right there?s a chance you could convince your opponent to join your ?cause?. And in the opposite case: someone?s posting against you. Common reaction ? flaming and total denial. The better reaction ? read the whole post carefully, make sure you?ve understand everything then ask yourself ?Where is my mistake?? and use the opposing post to change your position for the better. Arguments drive the world forward, because when two different positions meet each of them can be modified by removing the wrong parts of it and adding the good parts of the other. The saying is ?If you can?t beat them, join them? and it can be addressed to this case too. If you?re loosing a dispute and you have used all the facts available them your position is probably wrong. What you have to do is change it or even better ? adopt the opposing opinion to your cause ? take its best additions and add them to your own and also remove the wrong parts.

You?ve got to finally realize that arguing isn?t supposed to eliminate one of the opposing sides, it is meant to fix the mistakes they?ve both made. So don?t just keep insulting but try to find the best position by evolving yours according to the current situation. Think about it.

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Other than what I?ve stated above there are other cases: when your opinion is not based on any thoughts but is imposed to you by someone else: media, religion, parents, etc. It is very common for parents to transfer their occasional habits to the children, like favorite food, sport team, etc. But it also happens that some more complicated issues like nationality, religion and political belonging to be ?enforced? upon child. In such cases all other positions are claimed as wrong and are blindly denied. Don?t believe everything you are told by the ?higher instances? and put everything to the test of the facts. Keep asking yourself whether you?re doing the right thing, don?t just do what the others do, because it might be wrong. Before you ask others what they think ask yourself ?is my post really right? Is it worth posting at all??. This also applies with full force on other manners from the life. Any action, opinion or theory can be put to such a self-test, no matter the field. Think about it.

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This concludes this week?s analysis. If you?re looking for a summary here you won?t find any ? go back to the top and READ EVRYTHING CAREFULLY or this place isn?t for you. Feel free to append to my thoughts as long as your reply is well considered and has passed the ?test? I spoke of. It is sure that senseless replies will be neglected, so don?t create any extra work for the moderators. Thank you for the attention.

If you think your post deserves consideration don't save your words - you have only 7 days before the next chapter comes out!

Interesting, but it doesn't really say all that much in my opinion.

I shall indeed be moderating this most strictly.

It is quite complicated matter so we won't delve deep into it.

Aw

Before I begin though, in case it may seem that I'm talking At you instead of To you (you = anyone) then don't be offended.

Its true about the media and the other stuff you mentioned. Its a frightening though really, the more I find out about human nature, the more I fear for the future. Everything seems to be going away from reality, away from nature - we seem to be forgetting that we are mammals, and living entities, and have the same weaknesses, faults and downfalls - just like any other animal.

The terrible (and unnecessary) loss of life after the Boxing Day tsunami proves the fact that humans have strayed away from nature, in favour of their own manifested reality. Most animals instinctively knew that something was wrong and managed to escape, but humans have sadly gone out of touch.

Don't take me for a hippy (or one of those druids that dance around fires..) But the more humans "Advance" the further they stray from reality.

Society as a whole has lost the true sense of being human. When was the last time you saw someone create something with their bare hands for the pleasure of making something, and not for profit? (I'm talking about physical things, not a string of 1's and 0's)
The essence of being human is assimilating with your environment, using your minds just as much as our dexterity and thriving not on faster CPUs, or a top score, but on our own creations, nature, and most importantly: knowledge.

What upsets me the most is the unwillingness of modern societies to accept that old ways of life are still valid and humans have not evolved in a few hundred years, this whole thing of living on consequence, and borrowing from the future falls in the same category.

Just a few examples may make things a little clearer:
Cot Death:
Its no mystery - children need human CONTACT not brain boosting cow&gate artificial milk proteins...

If a mother leaves her child, biologically, and emotionally, the child is receiving the message: "you mother is absent, she is either dead or has abandoned you" The Emotional contact is lost.

Humans need more than just food and oxygen to survive, but if you remove the emotional attachment, by segregating your child to a different room, in suffocating synthetic clothing, and feed it artificial food, don't expect too much empathy or love back. It's a wonder so many children survive at all.

Reaction based Culture

Why is everyone bent on fighting the effects of problems rather than the roots?

Say you get sick: what do people do? Get some drugs!
"Symptoms go, that means the sickness is gone too - Right?"
^
Whoever has an attitude like that deserves everything they fall ill to...

What's the point of removing symptoms if your body is still sick?
Granted, after a while, your body does overcome the disease, but in most cases, the disease just stops exhibiting symptoms, and turns into a chronic state - periodically reappearing in a modified form in your later life to kill you and save everyone the bother of paying out your pension.

If you've got the flu, stay in bed, drink plenty of fluids, get some fresh air and direct sunlight, keep warmer than usual, and in a few days you'll be better than you were before you got sick.

Yobbish culture is ruining our society

Yea - more police will solve the problem, lets ignore the fact that people just don't have the facilities, or the brains to do anything else apart from binge-drinking and kicking the shit out of each other.

Instead of setting good examples, and promoting stable family life, lets make celebrities out of sluts, fraudsters, freeloaders, and psychopaths. What impression are people getting when a guy runs off with some young one, leaving behind a wife and children? Why is it so much more profitable and easier to live if you are divorced, in an unstable relationship, and have no intention of doing anything with your life?

Where's the "stable family" tax break?

Why are people allowed to reproduce, when nature has disabled their ability to do so (for very valid reasons: evolutionary reasons)
If there's something wrong with you, don't repeat the mistake. IVF is useless, if someone is about to die from a rare blood disorder, they shouldn't be allowed to have a child - regardless of the fact that it can be done. Boycotting natures inbuilt error control is asking for trouble.

And whatever happened to fixing stuff ?
Why is everyone focused in on the idea of replacing everything in sight? Instead of actually fixing something if it breaks.

The problem is: things are getting so far out of hand, that you have no choice but to conform: Super advanced technologies are designed to be disposable. Granted, some parts are impossible to repair due to their nature, but if a wire comes loose someplace, you buy a new unit instead of getting a bit of initiative and a solder-iron - Why?

Why isn't there more drive in industry as a whole, to produce something Lasting, rather than something that will ensure a fresh costumer right after the warranty expires.

The answer to most of those questions is very simple, and paradoxically, not very scary.

Everything that's ment to scare you is actually made up, and most of it is blown way out of proportion in order to influence you inot certain actions and or decisions. Simple.

If the "western way of life" suddenly got wiped out, then nothing terrible will happen. People are starting to be frightened by trivial things like the cover of their mobile phone, the colour of their car's seats, and the imminent non-existent terrorist that's standing behind you and will blow himself up in front of you because he is all evil and wants to kill you. All Nonsense. If you don't want Islamic terrorists, maybe you should have respected their beliefs, and just stopped caring about "Converting everyone to the one true faith" and maybe you shouldn't have created & financed them to fight the "soviet threat". If you were so scared of communist, maybe you should have learnt what it was really like, and maybe learnt something for the future, by looking at their mistakes, and solutions, and seeing if they had any solutions to your mistakes.

This turned out to be a really long rant, hope it was somewhat interesting.
I'll leave you with my predictions for the future:

• Bin laden will make a comeback whenever its convenient to bomb another country through which a major oil pipeline (or some other form of natural resource) will be built to suck the resources from country X in exchange for frivolous green tinted papers.

• Girls won't sleep with you unless you buy the latest Nike shoes, consume 93.7 grams of mints, buy the latest chart-topping album, and put gel in your hair.

• You will die before you get to spend most of your pension fund (if there's a fund left)

• Global warming and the greenhouse effect will cause crops in the poorest countries to fail, but that's ok since farm yields in North America and Europe are expected to rise by 19%

And the one I'm most sure of:

• The evening news is going to report some awful story about some frivolous threat like "a heat wave killing thousands" or a band of marauding killer additives that have evolved intelligence and will wipe out all human life as we know it.

* Girls won't sleep with you unless you buy the latest Nike shoes, consume 93.7 grams of mints, buy the latest chart-topping album, and put gel in your hair.

Damn.

leers invitingly at kol

* You will die before you get to spend most of your pension fund (if there's a fund left)

I think that's the wrong way 'round, certainly in England, anyway.

Your post is worth the reading, kol. As a matter of fact you covered many areas I meant to discuss later (because The System won't be a whole without a 'World Economy' and 'Politics' chapters).

Why is everyone bent on fighting the effects of problems rather than the roots?

Yes, this is one of the greatest mistakes of our 'advanced' 'technological' society. No one is thinking logically anymore just because they don't get paid for extra ideas. Even for things that are so obvious people need instruction. You can even fly a helicopter if you're a little more intuitive and know a bit of mechanics. This also applies to most other aspects of today's world. A good example will be terorism. Increased security, prevention, repressions and all this just to stop a phantom menace, instead of understanding why there are terrorists in the first place. But the government isn't stupid, not at all. USA attacked 'the core' of the problem at the 'tora bora' mountain. But this is only an illusion, only a symptome of the disease.

Bin laden will make a comeback whenever its convenient to bomb another country through which a major oil pipeline (or some other form of natural resource) will be built to suck the resources from country X in exchange for frivolous green tinted papers.

Destruction is the easiest thing in this state of existence. It doesn't take much to destroy the entire planet, the only reason for it to be still intact is the fact that terrorists don't want to destroy it. People have to realize that the extremist fractions don't want to kill them. All they want is to be left alone. What's the urgent need to build 'democracy' there anyway? This style of life just isn't fit for these people, that's the truth.

Everything that's ment to scare you is actually made up, and most of it is blown way out of proportion in order to influence you inot certain actions and or decisions. Simple.

So true. The politicians don't need smart individuals, capable of taking care of themselves, they need cattle. Sad but true. All the newest creations of technology are meant to make people dependent on the society. A little 'insurance' in case anyone decides to defect. Calculators make the simple knowledge of calculus obsolete, voice-to-text devices make the writting obsolte, automatic translation will eleminate the need to know any foreign language and with the blink of an eye most educational disciplines will be removed. Dependence on the convenient is what keeps the western countries going. It's not because the life in third-world countries is bad, in fact it might even be better, but people just don't want to leave their comfortable technological prison.

* You will die before you get to spend most of your pension fund (if there's a fund left)

I think that's the wrong way 'round, certainly in England, anyway.

Not just in England, but here in Bulgaria too (average pension age: 60; average lifespan:65) In fact some people die before pension age is reached. The new syntetic foods are meant to shorten the lifespan in order to control overpopulation. This is actually the perfect society for leaders, a society where every adult works and no one ever gets a pension...

Interesting, but it doesn't really say all that much in my opinion.

Don't worry, Seventh, we're just getting started. This is like 1st gear and there's a whole highway ahead. There are 5 parts so far and a total of more than 20 chapters. The interesting stuff is yet to come

The programme for the upcomming weeks will be:

Chapter 2: Rights, Freedoms and Obligations
Chapter 3: Education and personality build
Chapter 4: Religion - Menace or Redeemer?
Coclusion: Flaws of the modern society

I'm announcing the upcomming chapters because I fear I'll run out of new material before the time has come (kol's post was really broad-covered). If you have anything to say about these topics above, please, keep developing your position and wait for the time to come.

Uhm, not much of an interest, eh? I didn't meant to scare away people by setting such high requirements for post quality. Don't be afraid, me and 7th aren't some evil figures who made a dark pact against anyone who opeses us and he's not going to delete criticising replies unless they're offtopic. Infact criticism is needed, as I said, argues move the world to prosperity. I really doubt my position to be flawless so, please, say what you don't like into it.

PS: This weeks chapter will be delayed a little, because I have to finish three school projects and I just defeated the worst virus menace ever (for me atleast... so far). I have found a usefull book called "Exploring Human Society" so I'm going to polish my hypothesis.