The Civilized Road is Morality

There are some things that I believe which most people, if you are to take them at their word, do not. But I find that when I observe what people actually do and how they go about their lives, their actions are in harmony with my views. For instance, I believe seeking profit is part of human nature and, furthermore, I believe it to be a good thing. I often hear people mewl about corporations putting profit above people. They are upset when a business puts its bottom line ahead of the welfare of any individual employee. Of course, the employees put their own bottom lines ahead of the company's concerns. Cease paying them and even the most dedicated associate will sprint for the nearest exit.

Then again, there are other things that I believe which most people, if you take them at their word, do agree. But I find that when I observe what people actually do and how they go about their lives, their actions suggest a disharmony. For instance, I believe that aggression (that is, offensive violence as opposed to defensive violence) is immoral. But it is commonplace in our society. There are many good people, if I may be oxymoronic, who decry robbery, rape, extortion, and murder while supporting taxation, eminent domain, wars to prevent wars, and democracy.

I say these things are immoral, you might call them moral, and yet others might call them amoral. Since morality is in the eye of the beholder, it seems like there is a chance that we are all "right". But morality is a means and not an end. The ends we are aiming for are subjective. And if we have subjectively chosen the same end, like perhaps the relative contentment of mankind, then our moral code can be objectively examined to find whether or not our actions will lead us to this end.

To be honest, I don't think very highly of mankind in general. For the most part, I really don't care if future generations cease being produced. I believe that the supposed threat of global warming to the fate of our race is no more real than the threat that Iran will attack America. But so what if it is real? The one thing we know about every single human being past, present, and future is that they all have mortal bodies. Death has been the fate of every individual and is the fate waiting for all those yet to exist. Why is it preferable that they succumb to heart disease rather than to severe weather events? To whom does it matter if we all die one by one or by the thousands, except for the people who might be left to dispose of the thousands?

Yet, I do have a subjective preference for the general benefit of mankind. This is because I am a self centered being, just as we all are. We all have something inside us that drives us to be satisfied. We constantly battle against those things that we feel stand in the way of that goal. The presence of varying degrees of empathy inside each of us makes it difficult to abide the varying degrees of suffering we see in our fellow creatures. Creating a world with less human suffering helps bring the chimerical goal seemingly closer.

The objective path toward reaching the subjective destination is a civilized road. All things that threaten civilization (such as  robbery, rape, extortion, murder, taxation, eminent domain, wars, and democracy) are immoral. All things that strengthen civilization (such as production, exchange, cooperation for mutual benefit, peace, private property, and liberty) are highly moral. All other activities that don't fit into these categories (such as playing video games, listening to gangster rap, going to church, writing blog posts, and recycling) are amoral. This is what I believe.

How You Choose the Price of Gasoline

I am often alarmed at how ignorant the populace is on the subject of economics. I'm not talking about the theory of diminishing marginal value or consideration of the upward limit on the boundary of the firm, but of simple economic concepts such as supply & demand. If you ask them, everyone claims to understand this most elementary law of human exchange, but hardly anyone actually believes it. For example, nearly any man you encounter will complain that gas prices are set by evil oil corporations and that we consumers are held hostage to these prices by our need to drive. There's no way gas should be $x a gallon, they say. It should always be x-n.

The absurdity of this argument can be shown to be apparent in a matter of seconds and it is a testimony to the wretched condition of standardized education in America that it survives at all, let alone that it is popularly accepted by even the relatively intelligent among us. If the oil and gas companies can charge whatever they like for their product, then why do they stop at say $2.87 a gallon? Why not $50 a gallon? Or $100? Or $1 million? I agree that giant oil corporations have no compunctions about getting every penny from you that they can. So then why do they stop at such a paltry amount if the only limit on their ability to increase prices is the amount of zeroes they can fit on a sign?

From the law of supply & demand we derive that as the cost of something goes up, ceteris paribus, the demand for that something decreases. The gas station doesn't charge you $100 a gallon because you won't pay it. They will not sell as much gas and therefore will not make as large of a profit, if any profit at all. If you would pay $1,000 for a gallon of gasoline, I assure you that they would charge that amount. And so it is for all prices. Your employer pays you what he thinks you will accept and not a penny more. The pizza parlor charges what they think you will pay and not a penny less.

Now we can see that it isn't the big oil companies who decide whether or not a gallon of gas will sell above or below $3. It is the consumers who are the sovereigns. Anyone who says that the price of gas is too high, and then chooses to pay that price, has just contradicted himself. Just like the obese man who says he wants to lose weight but can never find time to get to the gym, or the woman who says she wishes she could find a nice guy right before running into the abusive arms of the nearest cad, it is the actions of the economic actor we must observe while discarding his words.

The next time you feel upset at the amount of federal reserve notes you have to exchange for a tank of gas, remember that you only have yourself to blame.

Deport Mike Pence

Mike Pence, the governor of the great and boring state of Indiana, dropped by the Wesleyan university in my town earlier this week for a "community conversation". The students quoted in the local paper seemed quite impressed with Mr. Pence. One student went so far as calling it "an honor" and described the governor's views on border patrol as an example of how he is "passionate about our safety". Another student agreed, saying Pence's "number one priority is the safety of Hoosiers". I'm not certain what danger for Indiana is lurking on the south bank of the Rio Grande, but these children fear it and believe that Mikey has the duty, the will, and the ability to protect them from it and all other threats to their safety.

There used to be a different idea that dominated the philosophy of the subjects of the United States. They used to subscribe to the theory that the government's main job was to protect the citizenry's liberty, not its safety. Courts were to be established and funded by taxation of the population in order to make sure justice and property rights were protected and little else. Of course, this idea is absurd on its face. Taxation and lawmaking are themselves anti-liberty. The parallel would be putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen house. Even so, I prefer this logical absurdity to the now popular idea that the State should be your overprotective mommy.

Rest assured, Pence is only posing as your mommy. In reality, he is the fox. He tells you to watch out for the threat of foreign invaders as he slides his hand into your pocket in order to retrieve your wallet. The students quoted in the newspaper article were two social work majors and a youth ministry major. These naive young people were convinced to take on massive amounts of debt so that they could join professions in which their classroom experience will likely amount to nothing. But the bankers will be paid and they will in turn pay their agents such as Pence. I highly doubt there is anyone in Mexico who could do the amount of harm to these pupils as the state of Indiana has done. If we are going to deport anyone, let's start with the bastards in the state house and the governor's mansion.

Life, Death, and Booze

I try to stay plugged in. I try to focus on being a responsible person who doesn't let others down. I try to pretend that I care whether or not people who I'm not especially close to live or die. Sometimes I say things like, "I hope he is okay" even though I've spent absolutely no energy hoping anything of the sort. Neither have I wasted any effort hoping for anyone's demise. Hope is a waste of energy. Hope is hopeless. Or at least useless. Whenever someone inevitably falls short in their bid at immortality, I'm more apt to recall the words of Vonnegut than to be bothered by sentiment. So it goes.

Often I am successful at staying plugged in. I have just enough booze to distract my mind from noticing that almost everyone around me is an automaton at the complete mercy of their biological impulses. I barely notice that every thought uttered is a mere rationalization for these impulses that was formulated by some long dead philosopher who was himself merely trying to placate his own horror at the pointlessness of life on Earth. But I am not permitted to walk through life with a drink in my hand. It would be impractical. There are things to produce for people to consume. There are children who were involuntarily called into existence by my submission to my natural instincts. They must be fed, clothed, sheltered, and raised so that they may force a new generation to come forth to consume food, clothing, and shelter.

Even without the aegis of bourbon, wine, or beer, I am mostly capable of getting through a day without letting myself be overwhelmed by the futility of the charade in which we all participate. But then there are those brief moments when I fall to the floor and shout "why", hoping that there is a deity within earshot who might respond. Of course, one never does. I start to wonder why I value the things that I do. For instance, why am I constantly seeking the approval and admiration of other human beings? Approval and admiration are merely finite sentiments residing within a finite creature. Dust in the wind and such. The answer is no doubt grounded in psychology, which itself is grounded in biology, which in turn is grounded firmly in superstition and dizzying "scientific" theories.

Judging by the conversations I've had, the vast majority of people cannot relate to what I have expressed in this post. They are as impervious as insects, or bacteria, or a piece of drift wood to these crippling trains of thought. If it occurs to them at all, it is only briefly and is in no way an obstruction to their constant efforts at seeking the elusive goal of satisfaction. As for those afflicted with the vexatious condition from which I suffer, I can offer little advice. Personally, I try to have a drink, chill out, and enjoy the company of interesting people. (In fact, this can even be done without the drink, though it isn't as easy and I hesitate to recommend it.) Barring the unattractive option of suicide, this seems like the only effective way to avoid this debilitating condition. In short: you must seek distractions. Fortunately, distractions are what society is mostly composed from.