Doves and Scorpions

In the Gospels, Christ condemned most of all sins, hypocrisy - the act of speaking well and doing evil. Instead, we should do no harm, yet beware of evil. It is not sufficient to simply do no harm, and go around being naive. Christ also taught us to be aware of the wolves in sheep's clothing.

To be harmless as doves means more than doing no harm physically. As humans, we can also do harm through our capacity for language. Indeed, more harm can be done through words than through sticks and stones. And as Issac Asimov so clearly stated in his First Law of Robotics, harm can be done by omission as well as by commission. "A robot cannot harm a human being through its action or by its inaction." To stand by and do nothing while someone is harmed is almost as unacceptable morally and certainly partake in the guilt in the eyes of the law as the person doing harm. Ben Franklin made a policy to never gossip, and to never listen to gossip. It is not only our active participation, but also our silent consent to partake in an act of aggression, however non-physical it may be. Psychological and emotional abuse are sometimes more painful, and longer lasting than physical abuse.

To be wise as scorpions means to see past the superficial obvious manifestation, to understand the undercurrents and subtle relationships that link one part with another. When we see rain clouds gathering, we do not go out without an umbrella; when we see the sun going down for the night, we do not go hiking in the dark. To be wise is to know the consequences of our actions, and inactions. More than that, to be wise is to know not only ourselves, but also others, especially those others who are most different from us, even those whose selfishness, dishonesty, and aggressive nature are alien to us. It is better to know evil and be harmless as doves, than it is to speak as a dove, to dress as a sheep, and yet devour others, abuse the weak, and muddy the water common to all.

We are often told than idealists won't last in reality, or Washington, or whatever political system. Yet, it is not idealism, but common decency. And it is not pragmatic realism, but selfish laziness, that these so called realists are often the advocates. It is always easier to stand idle and do nothing, or do less, than it is to work hard doing the right thing. To be harmless as doves means it will be hard work. It is not the speaking of the truth that we need in utopia, but the doing of the truth, the right thing, that builds utopia a little at a time.

Internal GPS in Reality

Defining a way to cultivate conscience has been a fundamental quest since there were philosophers and society. Parents have been trying since time immemorial to teach children the difference between right and wrong. Religions of all the different cultures in different ages have been defining good and evil since humanity first awakening into spirituality. There are as many diverse views as there are individuals. Yet, there are also core similarities that transcend cultural differences and the epochs.

Many have pointed out the remarkable coincidences that all the major religions have almost the identical Golden Rule. "Do unto others as you would others do unto you." "Do not do unto others what you would not want done unto yourself." I think it is empathy that lays the foundation of conscience. Without the ability to feel the other's pain, to walk in the other person's shoes, to be under the other person's skin, we are all naturally selfish and self-centered. Selfishness, when in moderation, is a survival trait that evolution endows on all living beings, animal and human alike. As with many other survival traits, moderate amount is optimal. Extreme manifestation of any traits, even the ones which bestow survival advantages, leads to disadvantages to the individual, or to society. There are two edges to the sword, two sides to a coin, two tails to the Gaussian distribution. The Golden Mean is not just a fancy outdated phrase from ancient Greece. It refers to the peak of the Gaussian distribution, the bell curve. When an organism mutates too far to one side or the other, nature has a away of weeding out the undesirable. Mutation is only advantages when there is a change in the environment, or when survival pressures change the mutated trait's value from negative to positive.

Selfishness in the early days of human evolution is not only a good thing, but indeed, necessary for survival. One of the common criticism of unfettered capitalism has been its dependence on this most ancient of human instincts, to look out for numbero uno. Without the balancing force of socialism, of civic responsibility, or collective conscience, of consideration for others, this ancient force of selfishness literally tears the social fabric apart, and society teeters on the brink of anarchy.

To add fuel to the fire, intelligence and cultural development of the past millenia gave us the art of war, the civilizing facade of guile and hidden agenda. Underlying the selfishness and the dishonesty, the philosophy of might makes right can only produce a society of thieves and thugs whose only goal in life are to pillage others, especially the weak. Is it any wonder that the history of the past two thousand years and more, have been a history of wars?

Yet, there is more to humanity than the ugly side of might makes right. Out of the darkness of human misery, there are always beacons of light, such as Ghandi's Satyagraha, Socrates's Know Thyself, Martin Luther King's Dream, and many others. What can society do, to cultivate more of these beacons of light? How can children, and convicted criminals, can be given the same high fidelity GPS to guide their every action, every decision?

The Age of Reason, and other similar epochs in other cultures, gave us a rational materialistic philosophy that was a counter-weight to the superstitious piety of the early ages. Unfortunately for many, the pendulum swung too far, and we tend to throw out the baby with the bath water. Although the Catholic church had many sins in its two millenia of existence, it also is the towering torch-bearer of one of the most illuminating moral teachers in human history. Regardless of the metaphysical nature of Jesus, the Nazarene, the Christian Gospel is unique and full of wisdom. The unfortunate events since the Enlightenment extinguished the flame of morality in society. From the Reign of Terror to Social Darwinism, it is not difficult to see why Imperialism led to World War One, and the eventual destruction that was World War Two. Selfishness was in the heart of all.

What makes people selfish inspite of all the civilizing influences of society? Is there no hope for the future? Is the utopia in the Star Trek universe mere fantasy with no basis in reality? What makes people un-selfish? Is altruism really sociobiology as some would have us believe? Why do soldiers, then, sacrifice themselves for their comrades, even total strangers? What is the difference between someone with a moral compass, an internal GPS, and someone without? Where did it come from? Is it a cultural creation, taught since childhood? Is it an inate ability, like IQ? Can it be trained, like EQ?

The foundation of utopia can be found only when these questions have clear and practical answers, so that the children of utopia can be taught, and the criminals of utopia can be rehabilitated. Plato believed that children must be separated from their parents and taught by philosophers so that the sins of the father would not contaminate the next generation. Unfortunately his experiment failed. He did not account for the fact the the philosophers were also sinful. His own high opinion of himself and other philosophers led into a blind alley, and ruin for many children. The same is true of so many, whose own arrogance, and pride in their own knowledge, wealth, abilities, led them astray and doomed their own children to repeat the same mistakes, and suffer the consequences. China lost the admiration of the European societies in the middle ages because it too assumed the same arrogance, and lost the opportunity to participate in the scientific discoveries that changed the world.

Utopia is not built in a day, with a single philosophy. Indeed, as Godel pointed out in his often quoted and misquoted Incompleteness Theorm, no sufficiently powerful system of logic can be both complete and consistent. We can only hope to be consistent with our limited abilities, and to be sufficiently humble, so as to be opened to other systems, and fulfill a more completeness by virtue of overlapping redunduncy. As Bart Kosko pointed in his brilliant analysis of fuzzy logic's triumph over conventional control systems, the overlapping regions of a fuzzy controller provide more stability than the single conventional controller. There isn't a magic bullet, a panacea that will cure all the social ills of human society. There is only hard work and diligence, humility and openness, discerning alertness and tolerant compassion, a balance between hard truth and soft love.

Be harmless as doves and wise as scorpions.

Internal GPS in Utopia

We come full circle back to Bill Joy's vision of dystopia. Without a clear and precise internal GPS, or conscience, any rogue individual in Utopia, with the multiplying power of enabling technologies, can wreck havoc on the rest of society. There is always a need to balance the freedom and privileges granted to individuals, and the harmony and security needed to maintain an orderly society.

Utopia is built on the harmonious relationships among all its citizens. The internal GPS of its citizens must, therefore, be tuned to detect the boundaries which disturb those harmonious relationships. As any child learns very quickly, although it is good to have freedom, there is also a price to pay if freedom is not balanced with self-discipline. When a child steps beyond the boundary of appropriate behavior, it is the responsibility of the parent to teach discipline. As it is said in Paul's Second letter to the Corinthians, "Love is patient, love is kind..." Teaching discipline, indeed, teaching of all forms must first and foremost be patient and kind, providing a consistent framework of examples, role models, and clear boundaries. Children do not respond well to vague harsh words, hypocritical coarse language, or unevenly dispensed cruelty. To build into children a GPS for utopia requires thought, time and energy. Those who wish to enter utopia without paying the price will end up nowhere.

Similarly, those adults who violate the discipline of society must be taught to cultivate their own GPS. Just as a global positioning system requires the objective framework of multiple coordinated satellites' calibrated time signals, so too the individual conscience requires the objective framework of a higher power, that transcends time and culture, that survives the critique and analysis of experienced wise souls. Societies and cultures may differ in many ways, but they all share similar core values. Utopian institutions must devote time and energy to cultivate and nurture these core values that span the globe and millenia. Instead of punishing the poor and mentally ill by putting them together in a den of drug infested horror, instead of punishing out of vengeance, utopian justice requires each individual to be parented by society, to cultivate an internal GPS, to correct past mistakes, to re-calibrate towards a new perspective.

In cases of true pathological abnormality, where there is no hope of rehabilitation given the current state of resources and knowledge, the anti-social individuals must be isolated in order to protect society, and other individuals from harm. What criteria can we use to decide when forgiveness and patience can no longer be justified? This has been the core question of philosophers and political thinkers since Plato. The answer each society gives in response, signifies its level of civilization and maturity. In times of material scarcity, when times are tough, we respond with less patience and love, than in times of prosperity and peace. There is never an easily definable "true" answer. Ideally, we will forgive as many times as Christ taught us. But we live in reality, not in utopia.

Indeed, even in today's world, nations live in diverse realities, where some are literally dying from hunger and thirst, while others are dying from obesity and drowning in luxury. It is not easy to judge what is "right" when the criteria depends on so many different factors, which even in today's information age, are not always clearly defined.

Is there hope to cultivating internal GPS for children and adults in preparation for Utopia? Is peace and harmony but a distant dream or fantasy?