11 November 2004 · matching rem
¶ ten notes towards a moral grounding for the human government of a shared planet · 11 November 2004 essay
1. Human government is the mechanism for the manifestation of collective conscience, and thus the means by which we overcome both the intrinsic limitations and deliberate sociopathies of individual and group self-interest.
2. Human government ultimately serves only two ends: foremost, the preservation of life; secondarily, and only where it can be pursued without compromising the first, the protection of individual self-aware creatures' fundamental right of peaceful self-determination.
3. As long as the body of human religious belief is internally inconsistent, human government must derive from its own explicitly secular moral principles, and must conduct its moral reasoning entirely on the bases of observable material and mortal reality.
4. Human government should, and may only, be subdivided as a means for more effectively preserving lives or extending the right of peaceful self-determination within unique contexts. Local governments form and exist to apply global principles to local circumstances. Subdivisions of government remain universally subject to the same moral imperatives and constraints as human government as a whole, and thus may only legislate variant morality as expressions of peaceful self-determination within groups of individuals entirely and voluntarily self-constituted in informed consent. Neither presence nor birth may be construed as implicit waiving of any right, thus variant moralities may never be imposed on adolescents or over physical territories not populated entirely by consensus.
5. All tactical current moral reasoning must recognize that morality properly expands in all dimensions over time, and thus should anticipate wherever possible that current exceptions will become historical anomalies in whole or in part. Expedient mechanisms will and must evolve towards sustainability. Human government will inexorably become more global, more pervasively secular, more morally uniform and more intricately enlightened. Moral progress consists of the extension of the right of peaceful self-determination more completely, and to more creatures. Variant moralities will shift steadily from the domain of social mechanism into the domain of personal expression. We will increasingly live according to what we know, and imagine according to what we believe.
6. In the short term, much of the mechanism of modern human government will be dedicated to three major efforts: the support and development of currently unself-determining populations; the incorporation and normalization of local variant moralities; and the imposition of social conscience onto myopically unself-aware commerce. These projects are inherently remedial and self-eliminating. In a mature society, there are no local shortages of global surpluses, no local justifications for moral inequity, and no tolerances for systemic amorality or immorality in any human institutions.
7. In the longer term, government will increasingly be dedicated to two categories of more progressive endeavor: the ongoing and systemic mediation of conflicts that are by their nature irresolvable by well-intentioned participants, and the support of human-valuable activities for which society otherwise provides insufficient immediate rewards.
8. The transcendence of local self-interest is currently the preeminent human moral imperative, subordinate only to physical survival for individuals and groups, and superior to survival for organizations. A unified human government will only be formed by the transformative surrender of local autonomy by currently divided nations, the acceptance of significant social responsibility by corporations with significant social impact, and the recognition of the necessity of secular public morality by institutions of religion. From the most insularly privileged must come the most inspiring sacrifices.
9. The reformation of local institutions can only be effected by the moral cognizance and deliberate actions of individuals within them. It is the primary daily moral responsibility of individuals working in institutions to facilitate and encourage their institutions' acceptance of institutional moral responsibility.
10. A society's moral failures are ultimately a function, however indirectly, of the component immoralities its individuals rationalize or excuse. An individual's survival, expression and peaceful self-determination take place, even to the most trivial particular, within the omnipresent context of global human society and morality. All of our words and actions inevitably comprise moral assertions. Self-awareness is, by definition, a collective art for which we are our own audience. We must live in the understanding that our existences are stories we tell ourselves of how we think we should be. We must transcend the stories we have suffered from believing, and live the new stories we need to be true.
2. Human government ultimately serves only two ends: foremost, the preservation of life; secondarily, and only where it can be pursued without compromising the first, the protection of individual self-aware creatures' fundamental right of peaceful self-determination.
3. As long as the body of human religious belief is internally inconsistent, human government must derive from its own explicitly secular moral principles, and must conduct its moral reasoning entirely on the bases of observable material and mortal reality.
4. Human government should, and may only, be subdivided as a means for more effectively preserving lives or extending the right of peaceful self-determination within unique contexts. Local governments form and exist to apply global principles to local circumstances. Subdivisions of government remain universally subject to the same moral imperatives and constraints as human government as a whole, and thus may only legislate variant morality as expressions of peaceful self-determination within groups of individuals entirely and voluntarily self-constituted in informed consent. Neither presence nor birth may be construed as implicit waiving of any right, thus variant moralities may never be imposed on adolescents or over physical territories not populated entirely by consensus.
5. All tactical current moral reasoning must recognize that morality properly expands in all dimensions over time, and thus should anticipate wherever possible that current exceptions will become historical anomalies in whole or in part. Expedient mechanisms will and must evolve towards sustainability. Human government will inexorably become more global, more pervasively secular, more morally uniform and more intricately enlightened. Moral progress consists of the extension of the right of peaceful self-determination more completely, and to more creatures. Variant moralities will shift steadily from the domain of social mechanism into the domain of personal expression. We will increasingly live according to what we know, and imagine according to what we believe.
6. In the short term, much of the mechanism of modern human government will be dedicated to three major efforts: the support and development of currently unself-determining populations; the incorporation and normalization of local variant moralities; and the imposition of social conscience onto myopically unself-aware commerce. These projects are inherently remedial and self-eliminating. In a mature society, there are no local shortages of global surpluses, no local justifications for moral inequity, and no tolerances for systemic amorality or immorality in any human institutions.
7. In the longer term, government will increasingly be dedicated to two categories of more progressive endeavor: the ongoing and systemic mediation of conflicts that are by their nature irresolvable by well-intentioned participants, and the support of human-valuable activities for which society otherwise provides insufficient immediate rewards.
8. The transcendence of local self-interest is currently the preeminent human moral imperative, subordinate only to physical survival for individuals and groups, and superior to survival for organizations. A unified human government will only be formed by the transformative surrender of local autonomy by currently divided nations, the acceptance of significant social responsibility by corporations with significant social impact, and the recognition of the necessity of secular public morality by institutions of religion. From the most insularly privileged must come the most inspiring sacrifices.
9. The reformation of local institutions can only be effected by the moral cognizance and deliberate actions of individuals within them. It is the primary daily moral responsibility of individuals working in institutions to facilitate and encourage their institutions' acceptance of institutional moral responsibility.
10. A society's moral failures are ultimately a function, however indirectly, of the component immoralities its individuals rationalize or excuse. An individual's survival, expression and peaceful self-determination take place, even to the most trivial particular, within the omnipresent context of global human society and morality. All of our words and actions inevitably comprise moral assertions. Self-awareness is, by definition, a collective art for which we are our own audience. We must live in the understanding that our existences are stories we tell ourselves of how we think we should be. We must transcend the stories we have suffered from believing, and live the new stories we need to be true.