Organics & Ethics

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The issues of morality, ethics, gaian behaviors, humanistic concerns, extending dignity to other people and other organic lives and other groups with needs and processes that are different from our own ... issues involved with personal actions in comparison to global/extended vitalities .. comes down to: symmetry of communication.

The struggle between Organics - if I may use this term in a new way .. to be an animal, a social group, a political group, and so on .. any living-related "thing" that exhibits some cohesive behavior, and we can identify in some singular sense and name (species, person, nation, etc) - comes down to the positive and negative reinforcements and connections they have with one another (and other Organics as well).

I think of it as a metaphor: "Conversations with the floor." (CI essay). This amusing little phrase captures what we really do every moment of our lives without realizing it. As we crawl and walk on this globeworld,every day of our lives, we are communicating with the ground and it with us. We learn how to co-exist with this companion - not have your body in difficult positions, not impact too hard (start from 50 meters up and see how it feels to re-touch after a freefall) - and so on.

This part of our lives is casual and spontaneous, yet is really crucial and most important - constant interactions that are forever informing us about the quality/security of our lives and guiding their future actions together.

With the floor, discussions are immediate. The feedback is quick and unambiguous. You know 'where you stand' and where the ground 'stands' with you (to use an inside out and upside down kind of phrase). And so we act accordingly. We walk, run, jump, parachute, crawl, lay quietly, etc.

But in other communications with the world around us the signals don't always feedback that immediately. That which we 'do' may not always loop back to us in some immediate way that is unambiguous and causally connected.  If we slaughter another Organism for food, it isn't always obvious that to slaughter too many of them, we might run out of food ... at some time.   It isn't always obvious to us that uncaring, insensitive or unconcerned actions (un-open to any feedback signals - obvious or subtle) we take and impose on other people or Organics,  might loop back and kicks us in the behind.... with good effects or bad.

And like constant branched forkings of bolts of lightning ... the repurcussions are many and scattered and of different transforms .. not always obvious or trackable .. yet always real and always potent.

To blunder onward, thinking only of the here and now, or be concerned only with immediate welfare, power, the singular safety and health of your own Organic (group of friends, company, family, power group, species), oblivious of the consequences or debt to eventually have to account for, is to court oblivion and harm, injury or eradication YOURSELF.

What may seem personally beneficial to your Organic at one moment may not be disconnected from a negative lightning bolt working its way back to you ... that you can't avoid or protect your future self from.

But the rush and thrill of the moment - being in control - is too often a good thing, supportive of your Organic, and shows no signs of bad effects. So we swim with that feeling, we continue our actions - good, bad or neutral. If good things happen for other Organics, that's pleasant news. If bad things happen for other Organics, that's too bad, we feel sorry, but we don't feel compelled to change our ways. Until.

Until the lightning bites us on the behind.

So what are the lesson of weltanschauungs - the many possible 'worldviews'?   Prevent - as best as possible - the bad lightning strikes, before they happen. Keep all the weltanschaungs in mind - yours, theirs, others.    Live like you are not alone and that the globe is your one true Organic ... composed of little pieces that are all of them important - each alone and all together.

If you do not live in support of all the little Organics ... eventually all the little Organics will send you a clear conversation message in return:   we no longer support you and your Organic.

And just because you haven't received the communique yet, doesn't mean it's not on its way, to be received by your children or your children's children. So be careful what messages - your acts and deeds - you send into the world.  Whatever comforts or gains you think to make today will not last or insulate you from getting a reply. So be sure of what you do.   There is a reply message on its way. :-)

/ CI Essay / October 1999/ January 2000

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