Right and Wrong.

Today I watched a debate, or not really a debate as it is more of a discussion in which some people have some different views, entitled Can Science Tell Us Right From Wrong? I would say the main reason I watched this is for social stimulation. This is my tribe doing what my tribe does, try to work out how to make the world better because it is interesting to do so. In the same way that some people get together once a week to play pinochle I like to be around people who think and discuss in this manner. I grew up with this at the dinner table and only through substantial time and experience have I found that this is unusual, and often disturbing and uncomfortable for people.

The people in this discussion, and in the audience, are not a selection of people at random. To a very large extent these people are self-selected to be pre-disposed towards agreement with the statement. The person most antagonistic towards the premise that science can tell us right from wrong is the Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge. Such a person is unlikely to state that right and wrong has been eternally the same and given to us by God in a burning bush.

What the conversation really comes down to is what does "right" and "wrong" actually mean? The crux of the matter is whether you believe science can determine what these terms mean. I think the best analogy for morality in this regard is health, and this is brought up by Sam Harris. He says there is not a debate about whether science can determine what is the right or wrong thing to do with regard to health. It is generally accepted that science can determine what is healthy or not. I think this is an excellent point. I think there are some things that everyone can agree are good things morally, for example that the basic physical needs for health are met. I think increased health, decreased fear, decreased pain, increased peace, less stress, more compassion, these are all things that can be generally understood as being right or wrong.

A scientific determination of morality would consist of understanding what people consider good, and then determining what are the most effective ways to achieve goodness. The problem with this is that people are often mistaken about what makes them happier. Science actually does better than the intuition of humans at determining the truth. Intuition says that changes in material situation are largely responsible for happiness, when actually people's happiness is remarkably constant across a lifetime regardless of their material situation. Someone who becomes partially paralyzed is likely to live the rest of their life at a similar level of happiness to before their accident after an adjustment period.

I think what is right and wrong is going to be able to be determined scientifically as a the actions that lead to and away from an underlying biological state. I think that scientists are going to be able to identify a state within the brain that those who experience that state all describe as good. I think that a certain level of various brain chemicals and a certain level of neuron activity in certain places will be considered by those experiencing it as universally good. Further research will be able to determine which actions increase the chances of such a brain state being maintained or approximated for the largest amount of time.

The problem with this situation will probably be that the reported best state in terms of happiness and well being for humanity is not a sustainable state. I think it most likely that a brain state taking on qualities of religious and spiritual insight, the serotonin increase of smoking marijuana, and an increase in opiates in the brain would be universally thought of as a good state to be in by those experiencing it. However, stoned hari krishnas are very bad at maintaining the machinery of society that produces things like science, technology, food and other important attributes of happiness.

So, in terms of the scientific determination of right and wrong I think that it is absolutely capable of determining one version of right and wrong. This is in the same way that science has a method of determining how humans came to exist. I think in the same way that the majority of people in the USA disagree with the scientific explanation of how we came to exist I believe that most people would reject the scientific version of right or wrong. I think in the same way that people don't want to think love is the experience of a certain set of brain chemicals and neurons firing, people don't want to think of the rightness of something being determined by what proportion of chemicals it produces in people's brains.

This sort of science is really in its infancy. It is only very recently that scientists started having the tools, and in many cases the interest, to investigate happiness. I think scientific morality really comes down to how do people become and remain happy. I think science will make enormous strides in this regard over the next few decades. I think in the free market of ideas a scientific method of morality/happiness will out-compete alternative methods of determining morality, but it will take a very long time to do so.

All or Nothing Thinking.

In the recent US election a candidate named Rich Lott ran for a US House seat in northern Ohio. During the course of the campaign photographs will him wearing a Waffen SS uniform appeared. Rich Lott said that he took part in historical reenactments, and it turns out that he had done so repeatedly, and from different eras including wearing a uniform as a US World War I serviceman and a Union soldier in the Civil War. This did nothing to sway the liberal outrage that a nazi was running for office.

During the extended lead up to the passing of the health care bill, in which Obama asked directly for input from all sides, compromised on many portions of the bill, and eventually cobbled together a compromise which provided health insurance through private insurers to tens of millions more American citizens, Obama was regularly labeled from the right as a socialist, and from the left as a coward. Millions of people truly believed that this compromise bill was an attempt for a left-wing conspiracy to gather as much control as possible in order to run every aspect of Americans' lives.

During the Bush administration, after Bush had gone through the legal process to be confirmed as the winner of the 2000 election according to the rules of the election many people thought, and still do, that Bush stole the election. After declaring war with the approval of Congress, I personally knew of people who were seriously worried that Bush was the figurehead of a new world order and would find some excuse to declare martial law in the USA.

While in a debate about health care in the USA, after having mentioned that the French have a health care system that costs less money, is liked by its citizens and results in better health care I was told that if I didn't love it here I should leave.

While discussing the re-introduction of wolves to the Idaho wilderness in which a hunter went out with a group of dogs trained to go out and find bears and tree them, came across a pack of wolves which then killed several of the hunters dogs I was accused of saying that if wolves settled in a rancher's lands he should no longer be able to raise cattle. My point had been that if you take packs of dogs into the wild and have them harass predators there's a chance the predators will fight back.

These are all examples of all or nothing thinking. All or nothing thinking divides the world into groups, and these groups become mutually exclusive. If you have a characteristic, let us say that you are in favor of legal abortions, then all or nothing thinking puts you into the group "liberal" and then decides that you are also in favor of legalizing marijuana, against church-run schools, and for increased taxes. In such circumstances what is a libertarian to do? It can be very difficult and time consuming after having made a point to then go through the long process of disabusing people of all the things that they then think I must believe.

All or nothing thinking has the huge advantage of being simple. Your decisions are made for you. You can go through life confident in the correctness of your positions and the idiocy and evil nature of those in the other group. The alternative is to listen to what people actually say, to take each piece of what they say as independent ideas, to think of people as individuals. The alternative is hard work that requires real thought and leaves you very often with doubt about situations. The benefits of the alternative to all or nothing thinking is that the world becomes populated by people rather than friends and enemies.

Chapter 2.1

Old Nerwhal sat Little Mika upon his knee, much to the chagrin of Little Mika who had been far more interested in the manner by which he might torment his brother and sisters. Holding Little Mika firmly Old Nerwhal asked Little Mika in a voice like the desert wind whether Little Mika would like to hear a story?

"A story?" asked Little Mika with much suspicion, "What story?" and tried to use this as a distraction to escape the wily old bird's clutches.
"Ah, little one, this is the beginning of the most important story of all."
"The most 'portant story? Is it a good one?"
"Well, that must be for you to decide little one, but you won't ever know unless you listen to it."

Little Mika, although young, was bright enough to see the trap but also bright enough to know that if he didn't listen he would never be released to return to his main joy, the torment of his siblings. Without a word he acknowledged his acquiescence by collapsing upon himself with a discontented grunt.

"It is said that He Who From Whom Our Blessings Come was born in the village of Atvwahla just beneath the roof of the sky. From that village, when the sky was clear, it is said you could see so far up into the sky that your sight went all the way round and you could see yourself looking up at the mountain on a higher slope. He was a smiling, chubby baby who thanked his mother with every look and gurgle, and her heart melted with love for him.
But she had no husband, and so nobody in the village knew who the father was, and at that time that was thought to be a very bad thing indeed. The elders of the village came and demanded to know who the father of the child was. When His mother would not say they took the baby and, as was the custom, placed him on a hillside by the forest, for they did not know Him. His mother cried and cried, and beat upon the door to the hut where they kept her, but she could not get out.
As was the custom, on the third day they let her out, and before she took food or rest she ran with all her strength to the hillside. When she got there she saw nothing on the hillside, nothing at all. She wailed and cried, 'Where are you my little baby? Where are you?' and just as she was about to lose all hope she heard a little gurgle from the edge of the forest. She ran as fast as she could to the edge of the forest, all dappled and striped with the grass and the trees and the shadows.
'Where are you little one?' (that's right Little Mika, He was once called little one just like you) she called again and took a step further. Then she stopped, rigid, terrified, (do you know why she was terrified Little Mika? No?) she was terrified because there in the shadows was a tiger, huge and magnificent, and tigers can eat people if they choose to do so. She stopped, frozen in space, unable to move. The tiger yawned enormously, showing giant yellow fangs longer than your fingers. The tiger stretched on the ground, and there, there in the middle was a little brown baby snuggling close against the soft fur of the tigress and suckling from her teats.
Do you know how brave she was Little Mika? No? She was so brave that His mother, who we now honour at the Festival of the Spring, walked forward to take back her baby. The tigress looked at her intently, and if you have ever looked into the eyes of a tiger, Little Mika, you will know that it is not easy to move when a tiger is staring at you. As she reached for the baby the tigress sat up, but He stroked her fur, and peace came upon her, and His mother was able to take him up in her arms and walk back to the village.
As she approached the village she was frightened that the elders would take her baby away again, but as she got closer she saw the villagers run away as if in fear. As she got closer to the center of the village she saw that the men were gathering with spears and bows, and she feared for her life. But then she was startled as the huge head of the tigress, as big as all of you put together Little Mika, came up beside her and gently licked Him from head to toe.
All the men could see that this was a miracle, and so they went down on their knees as the procession of mother, baby, and tiger walked all together through the village to her little mud hut."

"What happened next? What happened next?" Cried Little Mika.

"Ah, I think I hear your mother calling us for dinner. You shall have to hear what happened next tomorrow."

Portland.

It is less than a week since I returned from a long weekend in Portland, Oregon, USA.

In the last fourteen months I have been to:
England, the place of my birth and where my family lives,
suburban Houston, where I live with my wife,
Western Ireland, which is like a spiritual home for my music and dreams,
Portland, OR, where most of my friends live and the city in which I have spent the most time.

I have discussed the concept of home before, and my difficulties with the concept, and possibly that creating a home for myself might be the next stage in my life. Portland was as close to being home as staying in the house of my parents. It was just comfortable, easy, familiar, and nostalgic. I had a wonderful time.

One of the most pleasing things about it was the warmth and affection of the friends with whom we spent time. Several people going out of their way to meet with Christina and I, find out about our lives, and feel pleasure in our company. When you have spent time in a place without friends you start to wonder whether you are someone that people might want to be friends with, whether the problem is yourself. Well, there are warm, loving, smart, fun people who want to be friends with me and that is great.

The most surprising thing about Portland for me was the state of the city. I live in just about the only metropolis in the USA that is economically undamaged by the recession. House prices and employment are about the same here as before the Great Catastrophe. Portland, by all accounts, has been hit harder than most places, with unemployment at over 10%, service shortfalls, and real problems in raising enough taxes to keep things going. I was expecting closed businesses, a general malaise, haunted faces, filthy streets, hard times. What I saw was happy, smiling faces, an astonishingly vibrant atmosphere, clean streets, creativity everywhere and a deep warmth and kindness for other people. Sure people wore older clothes, drove older cars, were riding bikes and buses rather than driving SUV's the size of the Titanic. But the atmosphere was fantastic, far, far more positive than in Spring, TX.

That's the thing about Portland, the atmosphere for creative, intelligent, warm-hearted people is so great that creative, intelligent, warm-hearted people flock to the city even without jobs. As a result Portland is consistently hit harder than other cities in terms of jobs, but consistently people don't care and want to move or stay in Portland. Its very success in creating an atmosphere, its livability, means that the population outstrips the amount of jobs it can provide in times of difficulty. However, the creativity, intelligence and warm-heartedness of its people continue to make the city a better place to live. I moved to Portland in 1997, at the height of the Clinton era boom (bubble?) and the place is a strikingly better place to be now.

As a caveat, the weather while we were there was bright sunshine, crisp mornings and glorious afternoons. Apparently anywhere Christina and I go we are cursed to bring the sunshine and warmth with us. We both know that it would be foolish to return to Portland because it is hard, hard, hard in the Binmore household in February and March.

Thanks again to Kerry and Josh, Blake, Chase, Kenny, Signe, Lori, and Patrick. For those who missed us this time we will be returning in August, you should check us out, we are awesome.

Chapter 1.2

Thick, oily smoke rose into the tainted air lit by the last embers of the dying sun. The village was in flames, the villagers lying in piles of hacked meat. Ugly sounds came from within the huts and the pitiful sobbing of a horse in agony completed the backdrop.

The giant, unwieldy bulk of Ughrit stalked through the mud, slashing absently at nothing with his massive axe. He sat on a pile of corpses, fidgeting and looking around at the scene. His black-bearded face was spattered with dirt and gore. As if at a lack of anything else to do he quickly struck off the head of a corpse, dancing after it in an ungainly manner as it skittered across the ground. Returning to his spot he struck off the top of the skull in the manner of a coconut, laid down his axe, and scooped up some brains for a snack.

With a small dribble of gelatinous goo wandering through his beard Ughrit made little circles in the dust with his monstrous iron clad boot. He sighed, hugely, and slumped back down on the pile of corpses disturbing a collection of evil-looking black birds who squabbled as they flapped into the air. Their squabble was upset by an unholy whine and a lightning flash, resulting in a cloud of feathers and two distinct thumps.

An impossibly tall and thin figure, swathed in an iridescent purple robe, picked his way fastidiously through the mire. Inching his way towards Ughrit he called towards him in a high, sibilant tone, "Greetinggthhhh Ughrit, congwatulathhionthh on your thuccthethful athault!"
"Thanks Akhdar, yeah, I guess it went OK."
"OK? Itth wath marvelouthly done, ath we thpeak the opputinitieth for wapine and piwwaging are evewywhere. I wonder why you are not at it, tho to thpeak?"
"I don't know Akhdar, I just don't really see the point. Just another day, another pile of corpses. It just doesn't really do it for me anymore."
"What? A point? Itth what you are, Ughrit, you were born to thlaughter, wape and thteal. You are the thcourge of continentthth. Nobody doeth it better than you."

Ughrit rose to his feet, strolled in a circle and kicked a corpse in the face.
" I know I'm good at it Akhday, how could I not? Year after year I've led a horde of the nastiest villains you could hope to meet. We've trampled villages, sacked towns, laid waste to entire nations. Somehow that seems to be part of the problem, it's not even a challenge anymore. Sometimes I just feel like packing it all in."
"Whatthththrth!" Spluttered Akhdar, "Packing it all in? And then what would you do? Are you a peathanth to plough the fieldth? "
"I know, I know. I despise those pathetic sheep that wallow in the mud their whole pathetic lives and then beg to keep those pathetic lives at the end. It's just that I'm so bloody bored of this constantly moving from one place to another and smashing it apart."
'But what of the horde Ughrit" " Akhdar's agitation was plainly visible in the miasmic cloud of unnatural poisons that surrounded him, "The ladth need directhion from thomeone or they will jutht go to pietheth. It'th not jutht about you anymore, Ughrit, you have rethponthabilitieth."

Ughrit peered into the deepening gloom as though searching for some inspiration, some hint of meaning. "Just sometimes Akhdar, sometime I think of opening a little pub, nice stone walls and a turf roof. I'd have a few sweet little maidens serving the ale and I'd really be able to talk to people, have a chat about the weather, you know? Just sit in a corner, put my feet up." Ughrit was almost pleading now, an incongruous sight from such a menacing, massive frame.

"A whittle pub?" scoffed Akhdar, "Come now, what would happen the firtht time thomeone iwwitated you?"
"Yeah, I know, I'd kill them and their family and burn the whole village down."
'Thweet maidenth? And them?"
"Yeah, right, raped and murdered."
"Thith ith who you are Ughrit. You lead hordeth of mean bathtardth in a plague upon humanity. Ithth what you do betht. Evewyone thinkth of packing it in onth in a while, but the gwathth is not nethethawily gweener on the other thide of the fenth." Akhdar was gesticulating wildly at this point, occasionally accidentally lobbing fireballs into the night.
"Now Ughrit, come with me. The ladth have found a nithe wittle scwealer that thould cheer you up no end."
"A squealer?" Ughrit's eyes lit up, and he bounced on the balls of his feet, "A squealer, really? Alright then Akhdar, lead on, time for to stop all this moping and get on with the job."

And into the sunset they walked.

Worry.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.^[2]

This is the Litany Against Fear of the Bene Gesserit, a group in the science fiction novel Dune, by Frank Herbert. I think for a start it is interesting to see how powerful such things can be, and how they can be produced from a fiction writer as well as any of the great religions or philosophies.

The part that really rings true to me is the section that reads, "Fear is the mind killer." I think this is a really important insight, far more important than an affirmation not to fear. Fear is a biological reality within humans, a pre-mammalian reaction to possible danger. It is vital to have fear to simply stay alive. Fear of high cliffs, or bears, or car crashes are all things that enable us to survive. However, because fear is such a basic drive in humanity and is built for dangerous situations, it overrides the rest of the mind. Fear kills the rational mind, it prevents thought, understanding, perspective.

The combination of fear and consciousness, produces the mental state of worry. Worry is a reaction to the conscious idea that there will be fear in the future. Worry isn't the adrenaline-pumping, muscle-bunching, instinctive reaction of fear. Worry is the imagination of future bad things, repeated ad nauseum, in an energy sapping, joy destroying habit.

I think worry is an over-reaction to an important natural process, in the same way that addictions are over-reactions to necessary processes like eating, or seeking pleasure. It is, of course, really important for people to think about the future, to imagine the good and the bad that might happen in order to make decisions. I'm not someone who subscribes to Jesus' exhortation to "Care not for the morrow for the morrow will care for itself." I think planning and thinking are necessary and good. However, what worry consists of is this thinking and planning in a closed loop. It results from a situation wherein the future is not ideal and all choices that a person can make will result in some negative situation. This unsatisfactory situation results in the problem being mulled over and over, always coming up with the same unpleasant conclusion, which starts the cycle over again. The problem with this is that then our present existence becomes dominated by future difficulty regardless of our present circumstances.

For me, this situation recently has been about my dog, Larry. Larry has gone through a series of operations on his knees, one successful on one leg, and a series of failed attempts on his other leg. Right now he is at the vets, in a place he hates, while we hope his knee recovers. The chances are that it won't and through no fault of ours or his, his future is likely to be one of consistent arthritic pain and some level of limping, perhaps pretty severe. The alternative is for us to put him down. So, the future almost certainly holds one of two unpleasant alternatives. I will have to make a choice between those two alternatives and this has been preying on my mind continually. The result has been sadness, moping, lack of activity, lack of interest in other things and constantly going through a decision-making process that has already reached the furthest it can go at this time.

Worrying therefore is useless, an outgrowth of a useful process of thinking about the future, but one which damages the present. If I worry about my retirement rather than making my best guesses about how to prepare for retirement and then forget about it, I am damaging all the time between then and now. If I worry about my dog I am not appreciating things like the sunshine, music, a good book, how much I love my wife. To be happy, the most important thing, it is necessary to not worry. To accept the things that I cannot change.

How does one not worry? As with almost everything there are different levels of worry between different people. The tendency to worry is a biological trait, just like depression, or weight. But like depression and weight, human beings can do things to reduce their worry. For a start people can recognize what is worry. Simply the process of identifying useless thoughts about the future can make a great difference. Paying attention to self-talk, and then trying to replace it with other thoughts (such as what around you is beautiful, or fun, or what you are grateful for) can make a big difference. A hugely beneficial technique is meditation, in which one trains the mind to pay attention and not wander in negativity. Of course, the most important thing is to fill your mind with the wonder and splendor that is life if you just notice.

A Miasma of Rambulations

I like the title of this one, even though I think it might not actually make any sense. It suits my present position, not making any sense, having a few ideas, but not taking much very seriously.

My state of mind is an interesting place to be at the moment. In one way it is depressed, in that my motivation is low, my energy level is low, my tendency to plan, think, discuss and act are all depressed. On the other hand I am not miserable. Reading my blog posts from a year ago I can feel some of the dreaminess that I feel at the present, but I don't have any of the rage and despair that is in a couple of them. Dreaminess is really the best way to put it, things happen without a sense of reality, an interlude.

I am finding it quite difficult to write even as much as this blog post. This doesn't mean difficult in the sense that it is a chore, or painful, I just find that my brain is not producing thoughts to be written down. I had thought about discussing the plan that Christina and I have been talking about, but it's just the same as last year's plan, but with some concept of timing. I had thought of talking about how important Christina's happiness is to mine, that in my rather isolated existence this is so much more important, but I've done that before as well.

What do I do? Well, the house is maintained at a level far above the mess that was our house in Portland. I don't think that makes any difference at all to how I feel about the place, but Christina prefers it. I am riding the bicycle, an hundred miles last week, and a frantic hour long ride yesterday (16.5 miles an hour average speed, just over twelve miles an hour slower than the winning speed in the UCI World Time Trial Championships this year) but I'm drinking lots of beer too, so I'm still a fatty. I am playing the mandolin more than I have in a while, and starting to sing a bit more with it as well. This is probably in anticipation of our trip back up to Portland for Oktoberfest. I expect that will be our last ever trip to Portland.

People are being interested in politics again in the USA as the mid-term elections are being held. I expect that the Republicans will get enough advances to create gridlock again, but I don't think they will do as well as they expect. Overall I just don't think it matters much as Obama doesn't have the political capital to get anything significant done for two reasons; presidents in a recession are blamed for the recession, and in a democracy the majority view generally holds (and the majority view isn't ready for pragmatically progressive actions). This sums up my view in general, people are short-term emotional decision makers who can't really look out for themselves. Me doing my part for the environment or politics will have an effect of one in a billion or one in hundreds of million, essentially no effect. How things change is through technological breakthrough, education, or reaction to disaster. Right now I just don't care.

It seems that the team I support is going to change ownership, from terrible owners to quite good ones. This lightened my mood to a quite ridiculous level yesterday. On the other hand The Face of Evil had a set-back in recovery from his latest surgery, and I as I took him to the vet he cried in misery, which dampened my mood the day before. However, with his misery at a distinct distance from me I don't really notice it at all.

The weather has changed, cooler and really quite, quite beautiful. I think I will take a walk in the park today.