If you knew it was too late to save society, would you still try?
In prior essays for the Good Men Project, I focused on three of six questions asked by Socrates as he pursued a life of excellence: (1) What is justice? (2) What is good? (3) What is courage? The additional questions posed by Socrates are: (4) What is piety? (5) What is moderation? (6) What is virtue? The latter question is the subject of the current essay.
Merriam and Webster equate virtue with morality, the definition of which dives into the notion of right and wrong. Color me confused, either by the teleology of the linguistic pursuit or my own inimitable ignorance, but I believe right action depends completely on circumstances.
Consider, for example, the case of global climate chaos and the irreversible self-reinforcing feedback loops triggered by industrial civilization. If overwhelming evidence points toward near-term human extinction, how shall we respond? What actions are deemed virtuous in this circumstance?
Let’s start with reason. A rational world view demands truth, rather than wishful thinking, as the basis for action. As Carl Sagan said, “It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”
Personally, I am profoundly committed to a life of service rooted in reason. For me, a life lived otherwise is not worth living. Indeed, as Socrates demonstrated by example, some things are worth dying for. Service to community and lifelong education certainly fill the bill, regardless how dire our straits.
I am not surprised many people fail to understand the idea that we’re all in this together. Contemporary culture has driven us apart, encouraging us to value competition over cooperation. I am not surprised many people fail to understand that, as the expression goes, divided we fall. And so we are. Our culture has promoted faux individualism instead of real collaboration. It’s all about me and my stuff, me and my success, me and my ego in this hyper-indulgent morass of American exceptionalism (and pursuit of American ideals by the civilized world).
I recognize it’s too late to save society, and industrialized society is irredeemable, regardless. Capitalism is assumed to be the best, most efficient economic system, but I think it’s better described as a pathology than an economic system. So I’ll keep moving seemingly immovable individuals beyond their comfort points. I’ll inject empathy, therefore resistance, into a sociopathic culture largely devoid of people willing to stand in opposition to the omnicidal mainstream. I’ll move individuals beyond dark thoughts and into the light of a new world. I’ll move them beyond inaction. I’ll move them beyond the oppression of industrial civilization and into the brave new world of a life that gives as well as taking.
When we fall into the abyss, first as individuals and then as a species, I’ll point out the absurdities of the way we live. Until I can’t, and we don’t.
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–Photo: RickC/Flickr, Caption:
The great mechanical civilization of the past used many “engines” such as this remnant to do all manner of work and transportation. They in turn were powered by vast underground resources of oil or “fossil fuels” that were easily mined. It was the depletion of these fuels that made that age dissapear as quickly as it came.
@Julia Byrd:…the only problem is narrcisim is almost never cured.
Guy, The sky is NOT falling. All we have here in America is a bad case of narcissism. And this too shall pass. The march of human history is clearly one of progress. Karl Marx recognized this over 100 years ago. Like Marx, I believe the contradictions inherent in any economic system or society gives rise to an antithesis. Out this will come a new synthesis and something better. Marx was a follower of Hegel’s philosophy of the dialectic. I too believe this is how the world works. You sound like Thomas Malthus who was predicting famine…..in the 1700. He… Read more »
@Julia Byrd: How are you and your family, doing well I trust. You know I am a die hard optimist. Not because humanity has given me reason to pause, but because I was simply born that way. Nonetheless, the fact is, if one believes the Bible, the Torah, the Qur’an and thousands of years of history, then one must come to the inevitable conclusion that we are royally screwed. God said it over and over and over again. WE are imperfect creatures, given to great excesses. Are you saying that God/Allah/Yahweh is wrong? But how could that be possible? In… Read more »
@Guy:
Bravo my friend . I have been arguing this point from the first time I arrived on the doorstep of this site with dismal results. Progressives are amongst the very worst at realizing this simple truth.
You are right, we may be doomed.
Will Best, There are several historical documentations of societies & civilizations that functioned cohesively, cooperatively and peacefully for thousands of years. You just don’t hear about them in the pop media or culture, in the same way we don’t see or hear Noam Chomsky interviewed on contemporary lamestream media. Ever. He does exist though, regardless that 99% of our citizenry don’t know who the heck he is. However, I don’t think Guy was talking about external competition with outside threats/cultures/societies, but internal dysfunction and interpersonal disunity in our midst. The localized competition/conflict you describe is often caused by external stressors,… Read more »
“If you knew it was too late to save society, would you still try?”
Hari Seldon did (cf Isaac Asimov, “Foundation”). If you can’t save them all, save all you can.
“I am not surprised many people fail to understand the idea that we’re all in this together. Contemporary culture has driven us apart, encouraging us to value competition over cooperation.” Your are engaging in fallacy. At no time in the history of our planet has civilization been in it together. It has always been a struggle between opposing factions and interests. It is not the lack of multiculturalism or diversity that has driven us apart. There is no example of history where two distinct cultures existed next to each other and the result wasn’t war/violence or assimilation. All you have… Read more »
@Will:
Since when has our natural default been to love each other?
SInce we evolved that way over two million years ago, resulting in our close knit societies that birth dependent infants and nurture the elderly beyond their physical capacity to provide for the group, and that we are perhaps one of the only two species that enjoys sex outside of estrus and procreation, the other species being our close cousin, the Bonobo, with whom we share closer DNA than to Chimps.
That’s since when. 🙂 Love isn’t THAT hard to get, is it?
Dear Guy, Since your talk in Mt Kisco NY last week people have been telling me that their lives have been transformed by your words. After the initial shock and grief, they are more present, more in the moment, more willing to take time for their friends and family and themselves. I too have been transformed and every day is different now. Thank you for that. We now walk being present, awake, with genuine lives aware that every moment is a gift. Even though before we were frantically working to make the world a better place and trying with all… Read more »
1. Thank you for this good-faith gesture of resolute persistence in the face of futility, derision, indifference, and despair. 2. FWIW, and as you probably know, in the “Euthyphro,” Plato strongly suggests that, as you put it, “right action depends completely [?] on circumstances.” Euthyphro, a young naive dogmatist and self-appointed expert in all matters of piety, is suing his own father, for reasons that come down to the dogmatic application of a universal standard that isn’t very appropriate to the circumstances–which is one of the uncomfortable insights to which Socrates leads him. But in the “Crito,” Plato has Socrates… Read more »