Thanks Platt
> "For most people, the question of why be good--as
> distinguished from
> merely law abiding--is a simple one. Because God
> commands it,
> because the Bible requires it, because good people
> go to heaven and
> bad people go to hell. The vast majority of people
> derive their morality
> from religion."
Yes and that's the major problem facing modern society
is that faith is declining so we are losing our moral
history which results in the hedonistic self centred
attitudes that are quite prevalent.
> For example, he says "Real heroes are those who face
> death for a
> principle--say, to save the lives of others--without
> any promise of
> reward." A fine sentiment perhaps. But the morality
> derived from what
> origin? Blank out.
I would say a lot of the people who become the "Real
heroes" of this quote derive their morality from faith
of some sort.
> "The truly moral person is the one who does the
> right thing without any
> promise of reward or threat of punishment." What is
> the right thing?
> Blank out.
>
> "Good character consists of recognizing the
> selfishness that inheres in
> each of us and trying to balance it against the
> altruism to which we
> should all aspire to." Why is selfishness immoral?
> Why is altruism
> good? Blank out.
So then we get to "rational morality". Here I will
divert very much into my personal life views. While I
have learnt loads from Pirsig, this forum and others I
don't feel that I currently apply Pirsig's rational
morality in my life currently. I find that Pirsig's
framework for a moral reality provides me with a
system where morals can exist and some basis for moral
choices, ie higher evolutionary patterns etc. But in
most situations I am still left with a personal
judgement call to make to decide which is the more
evolved (more moral) choice. I hope that one day by
investigating all this stuff more I might really start
to apply it...
Anyway, on to "The Morality of Dave". My loose
morality is based on the idea of selfishness with
foresight. I think the problem a lot of people have
is that they take a selfish attitude but then believe
this excludes the need to worry about the future and
consequences of their actions. I dissagree... if I
always make the choice that is in my best interests
this can often be a choice that disadvantages me now.
For instance, if I have a easy approach to money and
buy my friends things, this seems like an unselfish
approach, but in the long run I know if I'm strapped
for cash they'll happily give me some, when
christmas/birthdays roll around I'll get decent gifts.
I'll have friends that appreciate my company and
generosity which just quietly feels damn good. So
really, I am giving my friends stuff, buying them
drinks etc for totally selfish reasons.
This even extends to non friends. If I generally help
people and "make the world a better place" (which can
often seem a futile effort) in the long run
(hopefully) the attitudes will rub off, the rest of
the world will start to think hey the worlds good,
lets help each other, and then this general
improvement in the world will come back to me
increased by a factor because now it's not just me
making it better but loads of people.
I could say, if I do "good" then the next selfish
bugger will just take it all and give nothing back, so
to avoid that I'll keep it all to myself and hide away
in my study with my tv, but if everyone in the world
did that, the world would rapidly start to decay and I
would find my self in a progressively worsening
situation.
Anyway... thats my sort of "Dave rational morality"
that I've been running for years, and it has it's ups
and downs but generally I'm pretty happy. I hope that
along my journey with the MOQ I can either reproduce
this system in the MOQ or modify the bits of it that
need modification to get a more evolved morality but I
must say, I'm just at the start of this journey and
fingures crossed it's not going to end for another 50+
years.
Cheers All
Dave Moller
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