Overcoming The Natural Fallacy

 Too often people cite truisms to explain behaviors they find too inconvenient to contemplate and change. "It's the cycle of life," "everyone has a right to their opinion," and "it's natural so it must be good," are among the most. The religious will fall back upon "god works in mysterious ways," or "it is god's plan."

All these are aphorisms deserving of elimination, as they simply equate to "I don't have the time to think about the horror, and I don't want to take time out my life to address it." Billions of humans have become part of a society which compartmentalizes our lives away, in part to cope with the egregious damage we are doing to the planet and to other sentient beings.

To be sure, we are as imperfect as the matter we are made from and we need to cut individuals and society a little slack for needing some time to parse the information. Still, it's important to realize we are on borrowed time and each day we should make an effort to understand the world a little better. Human beings are the apex predator and apex occupier of planet Earth, so we should also be the apex contemplator and apex steward as well.

Of course, each of us can do our own part in our own way, but only when the masses unite under a flag of progress does anything significant get done. The cycle of life may indeed happen, and yes many will be hurt in the cycle, but we as individuals can ameliorate the suffering. Others may not deserve persecution for sharing their opinions, but bad opinions should be put in their place as misinformation and malevolent when the facts contradict their arguments. Nature may be a starting point for stable existence, but human ethics should overrule nature's cruelty when it can and when it makes sense. There is no holy plan, only human plans that can be rethought and adjusted over the long-term to better outcomes, the goals of which also need constant refining.

In the end, reason, compassion and desire are the tools of humanity we need to strengthen to get the ever-changing job done. Perhaps a better aphorism to start with is one Temple Grandin suggested: "Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be." 

The Goodness Guideline

 As discussed in previous essays, The Golden Rule, though pithy, is horribly flawed at its core. It endorses the infliction of ones ideals on another, no matter what those ideals might be. As such it is really a rule bent on proselytizing. I defined the Platinum Law (do unto others as they would have done unto them) is only slightly less pithy, but is superior in that it encourages explicit empathy, considering others feelings, before acting. Both of these ethical guidelines, when implemented with sufficient context, are fine as far as they go, but too much is left implied permitting a range of corrupt interpretation. Indeed, the Golden Rule can easily be reframed to be oppressive, while even my Platinum Rule is blind to external circumstances or the others' misinformed personal ethic.

A guiding ethic should encourage us to first suss out (both think and feel) about a situation, gather the best available information, and then act in pursuit of a good outcome that seeks flourishing and minimizes harm while (importantly) being open to new information and adjusting the inititial behavior.. Not so pithy, but oh so flexible. 

Let's term this the Goodness Guideline, partly to be alliterative, but partly to emphasize any ethical rule can only be a rule of thumb, and never can be a black and white, unfailing principle. Sorry, if you were expecting perfect insight then you are probably yearning for advice from a source of perfection, of which none exist. Gurus, gods, and any alleged source of perfect wisdom are inherently suspect, if only because they claim to be perfect in their insight. As mortal beings with abstract thought processes we have an imperfect understanding of ourselves and our surroundings, so we need to flexible in how we live. To be inflexible is to be oppressed no matter how much we want some ultimate truth to make it easy for us.

The Goodness Guideline is an honest ethic which can help not just individuals, but also families, communities, governments and societies improve their behavior. In a way, this guideline is an extension of the scientific method which seeks to improve knowledge of the universe by refining our suspicions endlessly. Similarly, doing good in the world is an interactive process that no single religion, creed or ethical treatise can ever fully describe. We humans, as the planet's dominant species, have a special place to be stewards of global health, external beauty and personal flourishing for all sentient creatures. 

No entity but ourselves can truly judge us for what we do, but the Goodness Guideline can also be focused inward to help us self-evaluate and self-correct our thinking and behavior. It is not an easy path, this journey we choose for ourselves, but together we can aspire to create a thriving world.

Tampopo, The Passion of Eating

Having just watched the forty year old Japanese film Tampopo I recognize just how much the consumption of food is integral to being human. The innovative film explores many facets of food with zany humor and primal romance mixed in like a rousing stir-fry. The characters are both down-to-earth and stereotypical of people across the spectrum of society. At the heart of the plot the visceral passion of eating overlays numerous scenarios highlighting just how key to living eating is. 

Now, Tampopo is not easy to watch for a vegan (that would be me). Numerous animal products are consumed to accentuate the passion of sex, courtship, professional connections, and even death. The killing of a turtle on screen would never have passed even Hollywood's regulations 40 years ago. But Tampopo is honest and looks that killing of a wild animal in the eye and says this is what our ancestors did, they didn't buy saran-wrapped rectangles of flesh distanced from the act of taking a sentient animal's life to feed oneself and their family. It underscores just how very distanced we have come from our food supply's origin and circumstances.

The film also captures well the immersion in consuming food, again an atavistic honest look at the pleasure we receive while eating. Surely, an animal part of ourself still resides in each of us that savors flavors, textures and the very act of taking nutrients into our body. Yes one could say we have evolved to sense the spectrum of characteristics each food gives to us so that we can continue our mortal existence. 

One could say many of the world's cultures celebrate the human psychology of being dominant, of playing the role of apex predator in the world That celebration is primal and joyful, while also being based on a fabricated imagining of our ancestors. In fact, humans evolved to be foragers. The latest evidence indicates human digestive systems and dental layouts did not evolve to support a carnivorous diet. We probably scavenged from the kills of true carnivores and eventually when humans developed hunting tools adopted the bloodier behavior of killing other animals for food. 

As modern civilization transitions toward to eating ever more ethically and ever more sustainably we will need to confront our eating behavior's origins. Only by recognizing how our actions impact on the world can we make better choices. Tampopo is a hilarious, touching, and harrowing reminder of just how far we have come and how far we have to go.

The Biggest Lie, Unveiled

Here we are in 2022 preparing for election midterms with candidates still claiming the Big Lie, that the 2020 election was rigged. Tens of thousands of people are still dying annually in our country from Covid and gunshots, yet vaccines and meaningful firearm legislation are shrugged off as dangerous options. Football coaches coerce students with prayer while subscribers to zygotes possessed by souls have pushed theocracy on the rest of us. Somehow we have raised the banner that "everyone has the right to their opinion" with the subtext being The Biggest Lie, that each opinion has equal merit. With this doctrine held high, tons of misinformation is sold to the public at large, often as youth indoctrination and part of an inhumane political power grab.

How have we arrived at this moment, where unsubstantiated claims receive so much attention? In short, we have been raised to believe lies without questioning them. Sure, your parents eventually came clean about Santa, the Big Bad Wolf and the Tooth Fairy, but God, Allah, Yahweh, Brahma, Vishnu, etc. continue to plague the minds of grown adults. I'm sorry, but there is NO GOOD EVIDENCE that any of these supernatural beings exist. The choice to continue believing in these fairy tales is at best child-like wishful thinking, but mostly is residual indoctrination of falsehoods meant to simplify a complicated world rather than attempt to understand it.

We lie to ourselves because we don't want to face the painful reality. In fact, so many humans subscribe to these crazy beliefs that we fail as a society to intelligently address the real challenges that exist in maintaining a healthy world. Only by living authentic and evidence based lives can we achieve our highest potential and improve cultural tolerance, environmental health, the quality of life for sentient creatures, and pursue ever better explanations of the world around us.

Sure, no one practicing nonsense religion should not be persecuted. Nevertheless, we should recognize supporting the unsubstantiated tenets of all these contradicting, supernatural-based religions hurts our society to the core. Religious belief peddles weak thinking and an emotional connection to the unreal. If we are to improve as a people (and we are, all too slowly) we need to look our beliefs, opinions, and emotions in the face and retire the ones that don't make sense. A world without gods may lose its imaginary safety net, but it also frees up resources and clears the global mind so we can come together and confront reality toward the most joyful of ends.

Free Speech as a Vehicle for Non-violent Action

There is no absolute free speech; as with anything abstract, it is either willfully regulated by the laws of humankind and of nature.

To the point of absurdity, the nature of reality limits the ability for a sentient being to voice an infinitely long word (infinite time and energy would be required) or to communicate backwards in time (adhering the the law of entropy, at least as currently understood) or to sentient beings outside of the observable universe (speed of light restrictions). I'm sure one could cherry pick other natural laws to highlight the physical limitation of free speech, but the point is that censorship of a sort is inherent in the real world around us.

And humankind is an incarnation of the known Universe, so it follows that within our own civilization, realistic censorship will occur. The idea that within those constraints that humans are permitted to voice their opinions can never be totally free, and when sensibly defended, regulation of speech can be crafted to improve the world we live in for all. To that end, language that threatens the safety of another being or some part of the world we live in, should be regulated. This might not require outright censorship, but may need to be judged on a spectrum and isolated in extreme situations.

Ultimately, ending all speech that mobilizes violence would be an interesting starting point. For if we could end the bullying, injury and death of all sentient beings, the world could evolve down a more peaceful path. That path could be toward a neartopia devoid of human created suffering. In such a world, all our actions could predominantly work toward building a healthier world for humanity, the environment, and all the living things in it.

The challenge is to institute laws that are enforced fairly among all. If only there were a god to assign this duty. Maybe one day an artificially intelligent agent will fill those heavenly imagined shoes. Until then our laws must serve as an agent to bridge the gap.

Twenty-first Century Priority Sorting

Having just watched the celebrated Indian film Pather Panchali, I am driven to contemplate what drives our choices when it comes to living. In the film a struggling family must use its talents to scrape by, and yet circumstances limit their success and in the end convinces them to journey down a challenging hopeful path that turns away from their heritage. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides a decent summary of what lies at the core when we as humans make hard choices. In short, we seek that which helps us survive and that which helps us thrive. The intermixing of these qualities into our daily decisions is rather complex, and in the end we consciously and unconsciously make trade off choices that benefit us as individuals, those in our sphere, and the world around us.

Critical to making these evaluation is the information that we integrate into these decisions. Too often we never include the impact of our choices on the world that is beyond our sphere. It is a very hard evolutionary trait to overcome. Our gut will tell us that our hunger, the emotions of our inner circle and only the immediate world we can see should be considered. Yet if we allowed only these local factors to influence us, humans would be a rather inconsequential species on our planet.

The fact is the human species has created clever tools that outperforms anything evolution has gifted to nature. Complex language lies at the core, wherein we can communicate ideas far and wide across time and culture to preserve lessons learned that aren't immediately obvious. Additionally, human institutions have risen that command attention and observance of information that we might otherwise discount. Finally, we have developed an abstract system of value exchange that permits these institutions and individuals to secure services that historically would only have been exchanged in direct barter.

One could point out that these tools also have corrupt applications, and part of civilization's responsibility is to keep these in check, to be sure. Still, the net positive permits humans and human groups to thrive in comparison to other species magnitudes upon magnitudes more successfully than other species. And yet, within our social microcosms we are still subject to entropic processes that challenge us.

And so the challenge of our times is to confront macroprocesses like climate change, biome fragility, and healthy planetary human carrying capacity. In many ways we are failing this challenge. The old ways of harvesting whatever one can, believing in ancient ideas, and prioritizing only what is immediate are a built in feature of our biology. Humans must fine tune our tools with rationality and compassion if we are to succeed in sustaining a healthy planet for generations to come.

Realistic Expectations in an Effed Up World

With the world population not expected to peak until 2100 CE at around 10 billion humans, there is continued pressure on the Earth to provide. Already our species has strained the planetary ecosystem to the extreme. Climate change, mass extinctions, resource scarcity, pollution and war between our tribes are all an indication things are out of balance. Civilization may be a boon for humans, in a bell curve advantage kind of way, but as a whole Earth's natural homeostasis is severely out of whack due to humanity's activity.

The optimistic view is that we can sustainably maintain that growing natural population mostly by transitioning to less impactive technology and more minimalist choices Unfortunately, pure optimism perpetuates a lie as big as any of the ancient religions that continue peddle their supernatural deities, "higher powers" that never show up to help except in delusional psychological form. Sciencism, the belief that improving technology will save us, is just as flawed a world view. The reality is unless humanity undergoes a cultural epiphany, our Earth will get ever sicker.

So what is a wishful pessimist to do? It certainly isn't helpful to curl up in a fetal position in fear of all the things we as individuals cannot change. One must build a thick skin to accept the inevitable reduction of planetary biodiversity and ongoing increase of human presence in the world, while doing what we can. Instead of having children of our own, adopt or participate as a next generation influencer to fulfill the evolutionary yearning to be a parent. Instead of striving to be a first world consumer, find a path of minimalism and veganism that reduces the impact on the planet's ecosystem. And, perhaps most tough of all, become an active persuader to win our culture over from those that worship a pyramid scheme economy. 

Everything a human can do to spread a culture of honest compassion that reaches outside of human selfishness will reduce the final toll of bleakness. Coupled with evidence-based policies that embrace accountability, the future can be manageable for all its inhabitants. The hardest part is realizing fictional dreams of utopia, whether supernatural or technological, are simply so unlikely that it's best to take a deep breath, center oneself, and take a brave step forward to pitch in to the effort at hand.

Peace out.