A Brief History of Ethics
An Excerpt from
‘The Ideological Epoch and the Dynamics of a Meltdown’
The ideas of ‘ethical’ as opposed to ‘unethical’ and ‘right’ vs. ‘wrong’ are fairly recent developments in the evolution of natural history. The differentiation between right and wrong is peculiar to hyper-ideological humans and could have only been constructed within an advanced ‘thinking’ process that was capable of arbitrarily creating (synthesizing) its own code of laws, morals, values and ethics outside the parameters of natural law. (By synthesizing an artificial paradigm of laws, morals and ethics, super-humans inadvertently manufactured, for the first time in the history of the planet, the antithesis of natural law which gradually came to be understood as ‘un-natural’, ‘unethical’ or ‘wrong’).
Nature abhors a vacuum. Advanced modern humans did remove themselves from nature via (1) the introduction of interference into nature’s ancient system of balance and order, (2) the subsequent invention of agriculture and (3) the development of hyper-thinking. And in the ensuing void they did synthesize a new set of elitist-driven and self-serving ethics which did contravene those universal principles that have governed all life on planet Earth since the dawn of creation. And the differentiation between right and wrong, ethical and unethical occurred courtesy of our cellular/genetic memory which is deeply rooted in the ancient purity of natural ethics and natural rights.
Another term for this differentiation is conscience. When humans do something wrong, unethical or that is contrary to nature’s laws we ‘feel’ it, undeniably, in our guts. (Anyone who is incapable of, or in denial of this ‘feeling’ is termed unconscionable). Conscience was an early by-product of our split from nature and ever since it has been the standard by which we gauge unethical (or un-natural) behavior. In the natural world ideas like ‘unconscionable’ and ‘unethical’ simply do not exist…they have no meaning. Organisms function according to the dictates of their genetic instincts, their immediate needs and in response to the natural stimuli coming in from the world around them. Having neither the time nor wherewithal to sit around and ‘think’ about alternatives eliminated any possibility of deviation from nature’s path. When a wolf takes down a deer or a robin yanks a worm out of the ground and devours it there is no question of ethics, morality or right and wrong….there is only an instinctual adherence to natural law.
The three accepted axioms which underpin our (quantum) understanding of the universe are (1) that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, (2) that energy has no future or past, existing only in the present moment and (3), that just beyond the wafer-thin limitations of human sensory perception and mental cognition exists a universal and Omnipresent field of pure energy that permeates all of creation and unifies its seemingly separate and independent parts (see the Allegory of the Christmas Tree).
‘Tomorrow we will gather up the star dust
Tomorrow we will gather up the crumbs
And the nature of the mind
Leaves us gullible and blind
For in truth…. tomorrow never comes’
Just how far hyper-humans strayed from the ‘real’ world can be measured by simply applying the above three axioms to the rest of the biosphere and then doing a quick cross-comparison with hyper-ideological man. Modern humans, due to their capacity to hyper-ideate and linear-think, spend way, way too much of their time wandering around the capricious fantasy-land of past and future, and precious little time in sync with the reality existing in the present moment. Conversely, animals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc. exist entirely synched-up with the present moment and have no cognition of the past or future. (One may assert that this is not true because what would account for squirrels gathering nuts and geese flying south in preparation for the coming winter…doesn’t that prove that these creatures think in linear terms. No, not really. The squirrel and geese are simply responding – in the present moment – to instinctual instructions indelibly imprinted within their genetic coding).
Anyway, what this ultimately means is that, with the exception of hyper-ideological, hyper-linear humans, all other creatures on Earth are naturally anchored within the exact same time-frame as the universal life-force existing within (and moving through) their temporal forms…the same life-force which is, according to the axioms above, indestructible, has no future or past and which permeates and interconnects all of creation. The Earth’s myriad organisms; the snakes, the eagles, the bears, the bees, the whales, all aquatic life and all the plants actually exist in synchronicity with this universal consciousness…they bathe in this universal consciousness and breathe this universal consciousness…all their lives. There is a tendency for some hyper-intellectuals and religious-types to write the animals, birds and insects off as insignificant, stupid and even God-less but it now appears these simple creatures are closer to their Creator, their divinity and their Great Spirit than the unconscious and fog-bound human super-mind will ever be.
I’ve heard it said that life is not fair, but it is just. We humans were dealt a most unusual set of cards…through no fault of our own we became unwitting participants in a major evolutionary quirk which quickly spun out of control, causing our brains to explode in size, which then led to us making an awful mess of things. This certainly qualifies our circumstances to be unfair but what makes this unique adventure ‘just’ is that we’ve also been given the power and the tools to change the complexion of the cards we hold…by making informed choices and conscious decisions about what we do right here… right now… today.
We humans could learn so much from nature if we only took the time and had the humility to observe. The common sparrow for example, has mastered the fine art of living in the moment…it has no bills to pay, no RRSPs, life insurance, mortgage or stock portfolios to worry about. Everything it needs is provided by nature on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis. It has no regrets about the past because being fully engaged in the present moment nullifies even the option of retrospection. More importantly, having not the brain capacity to think linearly, the common sparrow has no understanding of its own death or an after-life or the prospect of ‘burning forever in the deepest pit of everlasting hell-fire’. The simple creature lives completely free from these narrow religious-based fears and anxieties that plague gullible hyper-humans throughout most of their lives. These attributes certainly qualify the sparrow as a beacon of wisdom which could help illuminate – if humans so choose – a pathway back to the simplicity within nature and the truth within themselves.
Dennis Lakusta
October 20, 2013
For link to ‘meltdown’ essay…click ‘here’