OLSON'S POST, ADDED TO

"Perhaps the big problem is not so much the Good Life, but a lack in vision to see the people living the not so good life right next to you or down the street." - Olson

Couldn't have said it better myself. So I will say different stuff, to add to it. Here I go:

Maybe the Good Life ain't so good after all. What we call the Good Life is only a fraction of what such a Life entails.
What my fellow Fishie is addressing here is what I have recently been referring to as our dire "moral myopia." We can't see past the end of our own nose. I think it's important to point out that this is nothing new, and it's certainly older than 6,000 years, and it has nothing to do with eating an apple poisoned with the evils of hell. We've had it ever since we were pseudopodous blobs in the primordial goo, over 2 billion years agoo, whoopidy doo. What I mean is, pretty much all of life has and does function under the philosophy that "what is immediate is what is relevant. I am only concerned with what effects me." But as our species demonstrates with such brash zeal, functioning like this can get you into trouble. How, then, have all the other species of the world, past and present, managed to deal with this fundamental quirk that we, supposedly the most intelligent and resourceful species on the planet, are having such a hard time with?

Well, it turns out the "selfish gene" is also the "subtle gene." The ecological drama, over the course of Deep time, has demonstrated that the self-inhibiting genes actually prosper in the long run over the go-get-em genes. This is because genes, on the micro scale, and life, on the macro scale, flourish in the midst of diversity, negative feedback systems, and interactions. This is simply how it works. The go-get-em genes are great at what they do and soon dominate the entire population, appearing to be successful. But when the environment finally speaks up and says, "Nope," that one go-get-em gene has nowhere to go but extinct. It's happened millions of time in life's history.

We are a go-get-em culture. We have been systematically (not necessarily intentionally...that's a complicated statement) removing every means of negative feedback interaction with the environment. First, and most profoundly, it was with food. 10,000 years ago, having discovered the technologies and practices to produce food at will, we function in this way: we have more food! Look, with all this food we can feed more people! Now we have more people, we need more food! To make more food we need more land! Cut it all down! Look, now we have more food! Hey, now we can feed more people! This is great!

And so on.

We are scared stiff, polemically at war with, and utterly obsessed with the eradication of: LIMITATION.
As it turns out, much to our dismay, limitation is what life is all about.

We didn't find this out while sitting in the pews. In fact, it is in the pews that our united fear against limitation - against functioning WITHIN context - is most clearly spelled out. What is the basic premise of Christianity? That life doesn't end when you die. How anti-limitation, anti-context can you get? Go to religion classes, and you will hear talk of Transcendence this, Transcendence that. Go to philosophy class, and you will find people trying to devise a universal ethic (that is, an ethic where NO MATTER where you act, it will be the right thing). What we are finding out is that if we keep transcending like this, soon there will be no one left to do the transcending. Transcending the bounds of context has been the theoretical fixation of our culture.

Furthermore, the world's theistic religions have brought ethics and morality out of the realm of context entirely. They say, essentially, "You do not have it within yourself to act morally. Your genes and your world cannot teach you how to be a good person. You must be guided by a divine hand from above." Most religious adherents think there really are gods out there, and that without them the world would be a moral wreck. Other religious sympathizers argue that "I may not believe in God, but I think the Christian ethic is great." The ethic to which they refer is this: "How about this: let's act AS IF there really is/are a/many god(s) who judges and punishes you for your mistakes and inspires you to love others as you do yourself." All "as if" religions and ethics are an inherent dismissal of context and its relevance.

We found out that life exists not in CONFLICT with, but BECAUSE of limitation from looking more closely at the earth and how it works. Our culture did it by using science. Indigenous cultures everywhere do it simply by living and interacting with the earth. They don't need test tubes or experiments. They GET IT because they LIVE IT.

Our go-get-em-ness is hyperbolically espoused in nearly every global initiative we see today: The less we know about the effects of our actions, the more likely we are to dish out more money, so we are made to believe that this really is the Good Life, and that there are no costs to our benefits, and we keep electing representatives who makes sure this system continues. Hyperconsumerism reduces economic (in other words, ecological) players to charicatures like "consumer" and "producer" with disregard for the complexities of the players and their relationships. We are all slave to all of our desires. It is in inherent in the fundamental economic terms, "Supply and Demand." "Our economy's a wreck! Ah, it's because we're not big enough! More money! More consumers!" "The People of the world need more palm oil! Quick, cut down 28 hectares of tropical rainforest per minute to appease their every want (in our culture, synonymous with need). Whoops! 1200 species went extinct in one year! Well, we better cut our losses and cut some more!" Global healthcare movements are guilty too, I'm afraid. As is the goal of better sanitation for all, which is said to be the main cause of infant mortality in the world, right up there with malnutrition. NGOs that go to Africa, teaching people better agricultural practices with one hand and handing out contraceptives with the other. The Global Fight to cure Cancer. World peace! More education! Anything and everything that is limiting the human race must be eradicated, and soon.

And, in doing so, we elect ourselves to become The cancer, the uncontrollable, density-independent plague upon the earth. Hmm.

All of the above humanitarian efforts are very important, and I by no means think the world-savers of the world should stop. People everywhere need help getting through this thing, whatever it is. More power to the world-savers.

The problem is that without some system of limitation in place, whether it be economic or principled, these people AREN'T WORLD SAVERS, they are the Dr. Kevorkians of the human race, makng our imminent end less frightening. I'd like to make them heroes instead. Morally-myopic Idealists that go out there "saving" may actually be condemning. A blind idealist, it turns out, is the most dangerous monster that faces our species. An institution like the University of the South can pump out graduating classes of idealists each year, but if they are not equally morally farsighted, what good has been done for the world?

Yes, I want global health care, and yes, I want to rid the world's population of hunger and toothaches. There's nothing wrong with a welfare state. But, there IS something wrong with OUR welfare state, if we can't manage to administer global health care and pro bono dentistry without killing ourselves in the end. Without disease, hunger, or limited access to food, there is nothing to stop us. The Go-Get-Em in us may think that is a good thing, but we now have the intellectual tools and the evidence to admit that it is not. Because, eventually, something will stop us (probably lack of food), whether we like it or not.

What will we devise to counter our moral myopia? And what will we do to make people care? I cannot doubt that it involves a return to the relevance of CONTEXT.

Why Transcend? Go deeper. Get dirty. In the words of Wendell Berry, "Lower yourself."

"Her O Everybody, love the world your earth with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength."