M.I. Lastman's Blog, page 21
January 29, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
The laws of the world codify and control ethics drift.
Corporatism and globalization are the bulldozers of ethics drift.
Some common arguments for ethics drift.
Jobs, jobs, jobs; the bottom line; the people want it; the people need it; sacrifice for the common good; if not me someone else will; responsibility to the shareholders; progress; humans come first; ease and comfort.
There's no Planet B
Corporatism and globalization are the bulldozers of ethics drift.
Some common arguments for ethics drift.
Jobs, jobs, jobs; the bottom line; the people want it; the people need it; sacrifice for the common good; if not me someone else will; responsibility to the shareholders; progress; humans come first; ease and comfort.
There's no Planet B
January 28, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
The laws of the world codify and control
ethics drift
.
Life is, from the start, about ethics drift. The rodents in the basement cannot take up undisturbed residence because they would soon drive me out of my home. I get a cat, purchase traps - might makes right and the mice have reasonably quick deaths. But they have rapid breeding and a balance is struck that all can live with.
Within human culture we have laws and lawyers and a different balance is struck. Unfortunately, it is less ethical than the balance of nature. The result is not happy.
See Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/this-changes-everything-capitalism-vs/9780307401991-item.html?s_campaign=goo-BooksByTitle&gclid=CI-4_fKAt8MCFYgAaQodq0kAdg
Life is, from the start, about ethics drift. The rodents in the basement cannot take up undisturbed residence because they would soon drive me out of my home. I get a cat, purchase traps - might makes right and the mice have reasonably quick deaths. But they have rapid breeding and a balance is struck that all can live with.
Within human culture we have laws and lawyers and a different balance is struck. Unfortunately, it is less ethical than the balance of nature. The result is not happy.
See Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/this-changes-everything-capitalism-vs/9780307401991-item.html?s_campaign=goo-BooksByTitle&gclid=CI-4_fKAt8MCFYgAaQodq0kAdg
January 27, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
The ethical high point is to give special status to all things living. From there everything else is unavoidable ethics drift. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/
The Jains of India and their adherents elsewhere come closest to following this ethical high road.
The twelfth century mystic, Hildegard von Bingen sometimes approaches the same ethical stance. Here are a few quotes from her visionary teaching:
Holy persons draw to themselves all that is earthly.
The truly holy person welcomes all that is earthly.
Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars.
Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings.
Now, think.
What delight God gives to humankind
with all these things. . . .
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it. For
without we cannot survive.
I welcome all the creatures of the world with grace.
However, even she fell away from this ethical summit because she accorded special status to humanity:
All of creation God gives to humankind to use. If this privilege is misused, God’s justice permits creation to punish humanity.
These quotes from Hildegard von Bingen can be found at: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/features.php?id=20274
The Jains of India and their adherents elsewhere come closest to following this ethical high road.
The twelfth century mystic, Hildegard von Bingen sometimes approaches the same ethical stance. Here are a few quotes from her visionary teaching:
Holy persons draw to themselves all that is earthly.
The truly holy person welcomes all that is earthly.
Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars.
Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings.
Now, think.
What delight God gives to humankind
with all these things. . . .
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it. For
without we cannot survive.
I welcome all the creatures of the world with grace.
However, even she fell away from this ethical summit because she accorded special status to humanity:
All of creation God gives to humankind to use. If this privilege is misused, God’s justice permits creation to punish humanity.
These quotes from Hildegard von Bingen can be found at: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/features.php?id=20274
January 26, 2015
January 25, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Ethics are about sharing
President Obama shares hi s home with Michelle and his daughters. He shares it with his Portuguese water dogs. He shares it with polar bears and the few remaining giant pandas. He shares it with you and me. We are all in this together: Obama shares his home with all life. He even shared it with Osama.
President Obama shares hi s home with Michelle and his daughters. He shares it with his Portuguese water dogs. He shares it with polar bears and the few remaining giant pandas. He shares it with you and me. We are all in this together: Obama shares his home with all life. He even shared it with Osama.
January 24, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Jan 23
Ethical choices
might save us;
unethical choices
don’t seem to be helping.
January 22, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Do you want to save something for our descendents? It’s all about ethics.
http://goo.gl/eS7F2k
January 21, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Science imagines things: 8 billion +++ American-style hominoids + carbon-free energy.
That is not the solution; it's the end game. The link below will take you to the September 2006 edition of Scientific American. We have come a long way since then, and the editors would likely be embarrassed by this odd bit of science-fiction. However, the mind set is unchanged. Science continues to imagine things. We are still looking for ways to make it possible to go on growing as we always have. This only postpones doing anything truly substantive about fixing the crisis of stretching the biosphere closer and closer to the point of collapse.
http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v295/n3/index.html
That is not the solution; it's the end game. The link below will take you to the September 2006 edition of Scientific American. We have come a long way since then, and the editors would likely be embarrassed by this odd bit of science-fiction. However, the mind set is unchanged. Science continues to imagine things. We are still looking for ways to make it possible to go on growing as we always have. This only postpones doing anything truly substantive about fixing the crisis of stretching the biosphere closer and closer to the point of collapse.
http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v295/n3/index.html
January 20, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Science imagines things: A universe teeming with life - hard to find and infinitely harder to reach. There's no planet B http://goo.gl/fJqwS1
