Flossing might save the World

All of our wonderful technologies can't save us without a clear moral tool box for making the right decisions.

Advances in green technology make equitable choices easier - if we can bring electricity to new places while not enslaving the 'beneficiaries' then that changes the trajectory of human civilization - it tilts our searing landscape towards progress - but without the inner technologies - the ethical systems, philosophical rigour of acting justly - taking full responsibily for the consequences of our lifestyles and actions, they are useless.


'Humanity has all the technology it needs to live justly and sustainably'
The only technology humanity needs to live in peace is a stronger moral compass.  If we all took 20 minutes a day to study philosophy or meditate - to quiet the fears and anxieties that drive our greed and selfishness, we could look around and see: oh we can stop climate change while redistributing wealth, strengthening democracy, and lifting billions out of poverty.  The wellness of my neighbour directly increases my own health and safety and liberates all the resources spent on wars to lift humanity out of scrabbling and fighting in the dirt and upwards towards the stars.

Each of us needs to stare Death in the teeth, and floss.  We're going to die, but we won't live in Fear, and when we pass it will be with a full set of chompers.

(image from Ottawa Dental Care)
So do not give into Fear.  Know that we already possess the tools to build a better world and the moral, philosophical and spiritual systems to use them.  And then act righteously.

Know that if you spend money on vanities we see you are insecure.

If you feel the need to dominate it's because you are too afraid to submit yourself to a higher purpose.

That humility, gratitude and effort opens yourself to life everlasting.

That anyone who has learned to not live in Fear has already found Heaven and immortality.

So stop being an asshole - we're all douchebags, from time to time, but we know we can do better.

Of naive Liberals and repulsive Conservatives

A conservative can no more help being repulsed by chaos and disorder than a liberal can inevitably fail to underestimate human perfidy. They are cognitive biases. Demonstrable tendencies to see the world in certain ways.

We all have them - they have likely been selected for by evolution and to some extent are inescapable.

But - a little self knowledge is a powerful thing.

Knowing our own biases, we can actively practice reassessing our first impressions. I need to actively rein in my desire to please everyone in order to conserve enough energy and resources for my immediate social group. I need to question my tendency to trust and think the best of people, with the reality that some people are selfish and take advantage. It is a rosy pair of glasses I get to wear, and I've told myself endless stories about how wonderful I am for finding everyone so swell, but it's a predisposition and no more 'accurate' than it's opposite.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

We would all do well to understand our differences, and to respect them - because they have likely proved useful in the past.

The conservative who is repulsed by the unknown is less likely to eat a strange fruit that may or may not be poisonous. And that cautionary instinct probably saved many of each of our ancestors.

The liberal who seeks to please strangers likely helped someone who ended up being of great assistance to the propagation of the liberal's genome.

It's life's rich pageant. Like every great cliche, the value of listening and trying to understand the opinions of others, is immensely adaptive. We each see the world in unique, yet statistically demonstrably common ways, and recognizing our blind spots - recognizing when and how we disagree, gives us access to contexts and perspectives that help us make better decisions.