Ten-thousand Years

Cody shows up, grinning.  Takes a seat at the table.  Lunch comes and the talk meanders.

Cody: So, I just read Plato's Republic.

Ax: How did ya like it?

Cody: Exciting!  You remember the part where Socrates is talking about how the value system of any given country goes through stages- how it goes from an aristocracy or government of the best to a tyrany?  I think it's happenin here!

Ax: Could be.  Kung Tzu-Chen said the same about the chinese empire during the opium wars- about fifty years before it collapsed.  Where in the slide do you think we are now?

Cody: Definately between oligarchy and democracy.  We no longer value freedom above all else- we've moved on to security.  Soon, the government will start using the fear of terrorisms to promote security above basic rights- and that will pave the way for mccarthianism again. 

Ax: Maybe.  Hey.  Have you ever noticed that things that are going on in society are also going on inside of you?

Cody: Uh.  No.  What the hell are you talkin bout?

Ax: Well... people are a lot more complex than they generally realize.  There isn't just one or three parts.  There's tons of parts to a person's psyche.  There's a whole society in me.  Most of the time- they all work together.  Sometimes, though, there's an imbalance and one or a few of them take control.  When that happens, I'm less stable.  Less healthy.

Cody: What's that gotta do with what Socrates was talkin bout?

Ax: He wasn't talkin about how a country falls apart.  He was talkin about how the value system of a country falls apart- and I think it applies to people individually, too.  Look round here- who are the staunchest supporters of war?  I dunno bout in Medford, but here in Applegate it's the Christians.  What happened to turn the other cheek?  What happened to take the log out of thine own eye? 

Cody: You're preaching to the choir- I'm a Buddhist.

Ax: Well- I'm not.  And I'm not downin the Christians, either.  I'm just using them as an example.  There's not a lot of em around today who are all for kicking the bankers and peddlers outa the temples- and I think the reason that they don't notice the hypocracy behind their own actions is that the value system has to be reformed.  Christianity is fine- but it needs to evaluate the consistency of its cultural biases.

Cody: Maybe.  But you could look at it another way, too.

Ax: What's that?

Cody: Well- let's go back to your idea that every person is really a whole society unto itself.  So imagine that a problem arises for a person in which they have to choose between doing something they think is morally right but has negative effects or doing something morally wrong that has beneficial effects.

Ax: Example?

Cody: Say there is a feller who is starving.  He asks around for food but can't get any.  He begs for money but gets none.  Then, while in a gas station the attendant walks out to help someone and the candy bars are left unattended.  If you want to make it more extreme- assume the feller's kid is starvin, not him. 

Ax: So he can steal and eat or not and starve.

Cody: Yeah.  Anyway.  It's a pretty basic need, so he takes the candy bars and runs off.  It's hard to argue that he's right or wrong.  Basically, it's just not legal and there are possible consequences.  But now he has another choice- how to rationalize his action to himself.

Ax: That's easy.  He was hungry so he took the candy.  If he gets caught he'll be in trouble.

Cody: Yer simplifyin, man.  People don't think like that.  They don't generally think of reasons for what they do before they want to do it.  They want it- so they make up reasons.  In this case, assume he gets caught.  He COULD say just what you said- and then take the consequences- but he's more likely to get upset and blame the gas station or rich people or the government or whatever. 

Ax:  I think you need a different example.

Cody:  Yeah.  How bout this.  You remember my ex-girlfriend Susan?

Ax: Yeah, she broke up with you.

Cody: That's what you and she both think.  This is gonna sound awful- but I swear I'm way more grown-up now.  The truth is- I wanted to break up with her but I couldn't bear to hurt her feelings.  I was afraid of thinking of myself as a mean guy.  So I acted like a real ass so that she would break up with me.  yeah, yeah- I suck.  But the point is- I didn't really BELIEVE that was what I was doin at the time.  I pretended to myself that each time I acted like a jerk it was because she was being stupid or whatever.  So I rationalized my course of action.

Ax: You were self-deceptive.  No- I ain't judging.  I gotcha- you're saying that people do this a lot.

Cody: They do it all the time.  Like people who have preferences for government parties- how many of them really sit down and think through the whole problem of ethics?  How many of them are just comfortable believing what they've always believed and so they don't question it?

Ax: Most of em, my guess.  Otherwise they'd figure out an entirely different system.

Cody: Exactly.  But back to value systems.  So, once you start rationalizing your behaviour to get what you want- even if it's just to believe something that is not likely true- your value system begins to deteriorate.

Ax: Let's get back to people as societies.

Cody: Ah yeah.  Went off on a tangent.  Hmmmm...  AH!  You ever read the Winter of Our Discontent?  Of course you have, dur.  You gave it to me.  That's exactly what I'm talking about. 

Ax: Oh, okay.  I see where yer headed.  It's like the parts of ourselves act as a whole most of the time- until some stressful situation arises.  A situation is stressful because it doesn't fit neatly into a moral system- sorta like our stealing candy while starvin dillemma.  So the stress arises and the person begins to fragment- and they fragment because they are stuck on a value system that doesn't work.  If they could reform the value system, it would be alright.  Like- oh shit- I'm starving and I want that candy... but stealing is wrong.  Hmmm.  But it's wrong to starve, too.  So, I have to choose the lesser of two evils.  I guess I want to live more than I want to not infringe on the owner's rights.  But instead of reforming- tehy stick to the system and rationalize the behaviour away.  Like- the owner is an asshole anyway, so it's okey to steal his candy bars.  Or, my girlfriend is a ditz, so it's okey to get frustrated with her and be mean.

Cody:  Ouch.  But yeah.

Ax: Sounds pretty far fetched to me.

Cody:  You have a better way of looking at it?

Ax: The whole value system.  Get rid of it.

Cody: Uh, but there would be anarchy!

Ax: Nah.  I'm not saying to run around stealin candy.  I'm just saying that a value system that must be constantly reformed is no value system at all.  It's just one more lie that you tell yourself- AHA, I've got a value system that's FLEXIBLE!  Wait a minute.  I have an idea.

Cody: Yer nuts, but what is it?

Ax: In computer programmin we have these intelligent systems.  There are two main kinds of artificial intelligence systems- fuzzy logic systems and neural networks.  The fuzzy logic systems are like value systems.  There is a table with possible values.  Whatever scenario comes up- you just check the table and respond according to what it says.  But fuzzy systems are only good for known situations.  They don't handle chaotic things.  Neural networks do that- they can adapt to things as they change- they can see patterns in the noise- like learning voice patterns and stuff.  But neural networks are slow learning unless they have some kind of baseline to observe.  Like they built this spider robot- they gave it a fuzzy system to make it walk- but the fuzzy system made it all jerky and uncoordinated.  Then they gave it a neural network- but it just flopped around because it didn't have anything at all to start with.  Then they gave it both- it started off with the fuzzy system- all jerky and robotic- and the neural network observed until it could duplicate those movements- then it continued to refine the movements until the robot moved more like an organizm than a robot.

Cody: Dude, you are a geek.

Ax: I know.  But maybe that's what we need in human value morality- a system that we recognize as incomplete- like a fuzzy table- and then an allowance to constantly refine that table.

Cody: We could use it in the government, too- rather than just writing more and more and more law into the books and stuffing up everything with beaurocracy and red tape, we could start off with a simple legal system.

Ax: How would you constantly refine the legal system?

Cody: Good question.  How about decentralized government?  OH!  I gottit!  But we'd have to recreate the whole national structure.  Take the federal government- it's job would be twofold- protect the individuals from the state governements and to direct coordinated responses to national crises.  Then the state government would only protect the individuals from the local governments and coordinate responses to state crises.  And the local governments could go back to handling all commerce, law, etc.  Decentralize all the government.

Ax: How does that fix the problem of massive red tape and allow for law refinement?

Cody: Local populations are smaller and could respond more quickly to cultural changes.  Also, their laws would be more applicable to their locality.

Ax: And what about education and national defense?

Cody: Well, national defense is easy- that's a national crisis.  Education is harder because it's the root of everything.... oh- I know where yer goin you sneaky bastard. 

Ax: (laughin) same as Socrates.  The education system is where the kids will get their ideas for how to run the country- so we can expect that as time goes by, the government will get bigger and bigger and more corrupt again- unless we somehow manage to teach every kid the critical thinking and ethics skills necessarry to remove power permanently from small groups of people seeking to control the majority.

Cody: Yeah.  How do we do that?

Ax: Wait about ten-thousand years.  Be patient.  Smile.  Turn the other cheek.  Meditate.  Practice tai-chi.  Speak.  And keep trying to kick the bankers and peddlers outa the churches.

Cody: How very Christian of ya.

Ax: Dude, I'm a farmer.

Cody: That's a religion?

Ax: No, it's a quietness.