The Paradox Of Morality

This is going to be a relatively short post of things that've been on my mind for a while. This term "paradox of morality" I've used lately just out of the blue when speaking about those who intend well but often when carried to extremes, "moral" actions easily become counter-productive and create conflict rather than peace. Yes, perhaps the "peaceful" one meant to resolve conflict from within yet it's often done in ways which create as much external conflict and less optimal short-term survival for the self. Being too forgiving, loving or helpful is also paradoxical when it creates a more helpless person which is less optimal to his and perhaps society's survival in the short term. Short term I say since an evolutionarily successful society will soon learn and mediate this by being less hospitable. As a supplement to my argument, a hypothetical example in response to the trope "cleanliness is next to godliness", should one grow up in an environment totally secluded from what we would colloquially call "germs" leaves one even more susceptible to them, see BBC article as just one of many references on this topic. Many times those things that may initially weaken us can make us stronger, at least in smaller doses, see hormesis which I've talked about before. And conversely those things that make us stronger such as hospitality and aid can weaken us in larger doses. Here's another one, 'thou shalt not kill'. Well, we see how that's working out. Everyone is playing a part in a society where we financially pay or pay by virtue of being a citizen to countries and communities that kill. Who will kill those that kill? If not, only killers remain and is that an honorable moral outcome? Now this can go into a whole other topic on the death penalty to which I don't necessarily agree with and as far as I see it with game theory, I think tit-for-tat is a rational but non-optimal default, in other words I'm more a believer in correction, something our "correctional facilities" seem only sarcastically in name. But across the spectrum it seems energy, or moderation as arbitrary as it may be defined here, is conserved and there seems no free meals which gives us only optimal benefits and no potential evolutionary disadvantages. Everything seems a non-Newtonian fluid, that when pushed the universe pushes back just as much. Maybe I'm crazy or presumptive but if the universe had a grand theme, conservation of energy would be it as it seems to permeate so many things as I see it.

In everyday life I think "paradox of morality" is a good term to keep in mind as it's a good mental model for critical thinking should one encounter some self-righteous nutter who thinks he or she knows what's best for you. So as you see, so-called agents of "order", life in general, create "chaos" as output in exchange for fuel towards self "order". Yes, order and chaos aren't totally descriptive but in the sense they're often used casually in the subject, they serve as comparative analogs. It's all also analogous to the Champion's Paradox and to use a relevant quote by G. Michael Hopf, “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” I think this at least somewhat rings true in a closed ecosystem as my experience and observations, fighters being anyone who fights for anything, generally tend to get less vigilant and become more decadent as their hunger and desires are satiated more. 

Wars and revolutions are generally initiated by have-nots and in a somewhat closed ecosystem such as Earth, country, etc, it's something to keep in mind for those who think they can live ignorantly of the suffering of others. I've heard Hopf himself is apparently a bit controversial in this regard but can't find a source though. If that's correct, how does he reconcile his form of degeneracy, a rather loosely defined quality that he himself has spoken against, in fighting to keep people at the top of society rich and decadent while pushing the poor down? When people are pushed down to great degree they can also grow degenerate and decadent as the very rich and develop mental and physical issues which may devolve into drinking and other forms of drug use. Excess financial status in both extremes tends to create excess deviation from the norm and one can easily grow ignorant of the hardships of life as well as the natural good things of life. 

Tangentially related when speaking of revolutions and the idea that what comes around goes around, there's a theory in politics called Horseshoe Theory which states that the extremes of political parties tend to be more the same than not. I don't think that's too contentious to me even if it is for some, at least not when only considering personality, not ideology. 

I think this all fits well within that beautiful Buddhist image of the Yin-Yang. I guess that's why I love it as a symbol of life and should I ever get a tattoo, it'd probably be that universal symbol of what I see as a closed, debatable but for purpose of argument, thermodynamic ecosystem of torrential extremes rubberbanding as the universe is "trying" to keep these gradients moderated and energy conserved because as it goes, "the universe abhors a gradient". Keeping this in mind regulates my anxiety because it seems there's a moderate method to the madness of the universe.

Maybe we can do better and more secular than the Yin-Yang and use a circle filled with half entropy arrows and half devoid to represent order and disorder. Let's call it the Flim-Flang because we don't take ourselves seriously here.

In unrelated news but to add the obligatory music video, I found out today that most members of my favorite recent metal band I discovered on Spotify weren't old enough to drive when they made this video so they toured with their parents. I was still trying to not screw up Smells Like Teen Spirit at that age, a very easy song to play. I swear, I have the finger coordination of lesser apes.