Whoa there (Off-Topic)

by Malagate , Sea of Tranquility, Friday, December 20, 2019, 12:58 (1800 days ago) @ SonofMacPhisto

So on the level you are talking about, I agree with it all. But as you mentioned, this works in our own personal community. But that community exists because you all most likely agree on a set of moral codes, otherwise you probably wouldn't be a community. Family, being a bit different.

We're a community because we agree. That's very true and a fine state of affairs.

I'm reminded of a very dear friend of mine who is a pagan, Welsh woman. She is a hardcore nationalist with no love for the English or the UK. That said, she thinks a loose confederation of states is the way forward for that area of the world. Wales, Scotland, and England would band together on things like trade and island defense but domestic issues would be strictly their own business.

Maybe that kind of thinking is the beginning of a macro answer.

In my mind, this all breaks down when you start adding in other communities that have different moral codes. It's when people are of the mind that their moral code is absolute that I just can't stand. Nothing that humans do is absolute or perfect.

It occurs to me that the conflict between moral codes might not matter as much if had their material needs met. After all, I need the gods to OK murdering you so I can justify to everyone else why taking your stuff is good. ;)

You see these kinds of ideas in science fiction utopias which not incidentally are a big influence on my thinking.

What happens when there are fluctuations in the availability of resources? Or disease epidemics? Local self-regulation of communities is certainly something that needs to take place regardless of scale, but beyond one's immediate community there needs to be some code that's agreed upon and followed; otherwise some group gets too powerful/stressed/hungry and we're right back to friction and falling upon each other. Broad-strokes description of humanity since time immemorial, so it's not saying anything new, but that's still a major thing that all of the smaller-scale community self-regulating isn't able to address.

~m