[iDC] (no subject) - ethics

[davin heckman]

I really am enjoying the discussion that has been taking place here.
I want to interject one small point.

Mark wrote:
"[Though, I have suggested here in the past ways to turn the
collective intelligence here into a "problem solving" resource. If
open source can solve technical problems, why can't "we," solve social
ones?]"

I think part of the problem with ethics is that the answer is simple
and pretty plain.  You've got a situation with a third of the world
living in shit.  Maybe a billion living really well.  And everyone
else standing on the heads of the people living in shit, striving to
pull themselves up into the blessed top tier.  As far as I know, most
people agree that there exists in the world a great disparity of
wealth.

In simpler times, we might have said, "Eh!  That's not fair.  Some
people suffer and starve while other people eat so much that they have
to have liposuction or run on a treadmill or puke so that they can eat
more" (only back then they did not have liposuction and treadmills).
Now, we are the ones running on the treadmills, getting liposuction,
and puking up our excess calories so we can look hot.  And suddenly,
ethics is really complicated.  We debate the meanings of "hunger" and
"fairness" and "fullness" and doubt the existence of ethics.  I think
that "collective intelligence" cannot really help us solve our social
problems, because collective intelligence is committed to solving the
problem of ethics.  Our well-deserved pangs of conscience and the
consequent feelings of self-loathing are what our society aims to
fix...  with medicine, with philosophy, with propaganda.  (Ethical
action is truly subversive).

I cannot really say where the idea of the golden rule came from.
Maybe it's an invention.  But if it is, it seems like a really great
invention....  better than a computer.  If people said, "Hmmm....  I
have a 10,000 square foot house and 4 cars....  maybe I should turn my
house into a shelter and try living in 1000 square feet," the world
would be that much better.  Especially for the 20 people that are
living in your house.

The problem isn't ethics or philosophy.  The problem is a lack of
will.  The problem is that we are cowards that hide behind gilded
intellectual apologies and postmodern indulgences.  At least in the
United States, the idea of sacrifice and asceticism is heretical.
Middle-class Americans are scared to death of suffering, even the
suffering that comes from knowing that someone else is suffering in
your place.  We don't need a new ethical program.  We just need to
stop lying to ourselves and accept the fact that the decisions we make
have consequences for other people.

I know it is a high horse to climb up on.  And I know it makes me
sound like a ninny...  But I deserve to feel guilty about every second
that is not spent on making the world better.  There really isn't any
excuse, when the world gives you every opportunity, to fail to return
the favor.

Davin