MORES FOR SUSTAINING CIVILIZATION

(by Dlanorrenrag*)

In Respect Of William Wilberforce
( See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce )

In the U.S., both of our main political parties are up to their eyeballs in short-sighted selfishness, corruption, and loss of moral vision. We greatly need a new awakening and a new, independent, political party --- one whose fundamental platform recognizes right from wrong. Our civilization depends upon it.

To sustain and advance a moral civilization, we need moral guidance. That is, we need instincts, notions, and philosophies concerning which common mores are most appropriate. Subject to balancing of midpoints and somewhat minor wordplay or semantics, the broad moral parameters as set out below should be agreeable to most people --- at least, those who are not unduly selfish or obtuse.

Even so, finding appropriate midpoints would remain of concern to mentors, adults, parents, and all who know right from wrong --- including all who seek to find, express, condition, and inculcate moral insights and purposes. Thus, progress will depend upon how we advance, in our genes, our nurturing, and our politics.

SPIRITUAL, EMPIRICAL, AND UNIVERSAL
In broad strokes, the following moral parameters and balancing needs touch upon and concern individual, social, and governmental values that are spiritual, empirical, and universal:

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND GOALS INCLUDE:
MORAL INTEGRITY: To experience a continuity of enough rewarding inspirations and discomfiting prods to keep us empathetically charged.
ARTISTIC FREEDOM: To promote freedom of artistic and spiritual expression, while monitoring and controlling against preaching of terrorism.
MIND FREEDOM: To promote democratic freedom of thought and imagery of self expression, while controlling against trafficking in vice and enslavement of mind and body.
LIVELIHOOD FREEDOM: To promote and inculcate marketable skills, values, and education, while reducing the isolation and pain that accompany poverty in mind and resources.

SOCIAL NEEDS INCLUDE:
PERENNIAL CODES: To promote and inculcate a conservative loyalty to civilizing institutions and mores of enlightened empathy (such as the Ten Commandments, the Great Commandment, the Golden Rule, the Scout Codes), while controlling against impulses that stifle liberal innovation and progress.
EVOLUTIONARY VIABILITY: To promote health, while controlling against overpopulation, environmental drag, and genetic drag, by appropriate resort to financial incentives and legal interventions.
PROTECTION AGAINST AGENTS OF SELF DESTRUCTION: To promote supervision and control against sociopaths, would-be dictators, and mass killers, by monitoring and protecting appropriate borders.

GOVERNMENTAL NEEDS INCLUDE:
ENLIGHTENED PARTICIPATION: To promote governmental participation, while controlling against excessive influence of conspiracies affecting special interests, ignorance and violence.
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS: To empower voting by citizens who respect common decency and general welfare, while reducing corrupting proclivities of lazy, selfish, and criminal interests (which interests, otherwise, are easy to entice in order to sell votes and to flagrantly join in taxing others to redistribute purely selfish entitlements and earmarks).
REDUCING WASTE AND ADVANCING INITIATIVE: To keep government fit and trim, by appropriate and representative resort to financial, legal, police, and military measures for defending and advancing civilization.