Chapter 1. Belief Set (Reset?)

One thing that is not self-evident is that we all have much more in common than not. Politically our attention is made to focus on relatively few issues to intentionally divide us into manageable voting blocks. In reality, we are all much more alike than we are different. We tend to look past our similarities and focus in on those relatively few things we don’t all agree upon. Politicians and the media know that, after hundreds of thousands of years of avoiding predators, our instincts make us pay more attention to the differences we find threatening. All those rest that we hold in common we take for granted.

More than ever we focus on our differences: catholic or protestant, liberal or conservative, male or female, black or white, etc. etc. etc. What do each of us hold as truth? What do we all believe in? We have to start there if we are going to have any chance of establishing a rule book (constitution) to guide our daily decision-making and our understanding of what is right and what is wrong. By focusing on our differences, we will never get there. By focusing on our differences, we are distracted from the higher purpose of forming a more perfect union of people who value each other’s right to their lives and their pursuit of happiness.

We have to start with something we all agree upon. Something we all believe.

"You do have a belief system,

whether you know it or not.

It's a system of ethics,

whether you know it or not,

and there is either something at the bottom that unifies it,

              or it's not unified,

which means your aimless, hopeless, depressed, anxious, and confused,

              because those are the only other options.

You may not know what that unifying belief is, but that doesn't mean that it is not there.

It just means you don't know what it is."

Again, we think about our differences more than we think about those things we have in common. What if we changed our perspectives and began our discussions on common ground, on something that we all value, or at least should value.

There is “something at the bottom that unifies” us and should unify our beliefs. There is something that we all have in common that if we took the time to consider and were honest with ourselves would be recognized as that which we each value above all else. It is something we take for granted most of the time, literally with every breath we don’t think about taking. If we were to take the time to recognize this something as a primary value we all share, and then built our belief systems, our ethics, our morals around that something, we could begin moving forward with much more unity, much more alignment, and much more success as a society.

That something is life. Not life in the abstract, as in all the living things in the world around us, but the single, precious life that each of us as individuals possess. This is the one thing that each of us should respect, hold dear, and value above all else. Each of us is a perishable good with a limited shelf life. Our life is our most precious possession, our most valuable asset. Nothing can be more important to us.

The idea that “all men are created equal” is easy to dispute. No two people are the same. We don’t all have the same strength, or the same intelligence, or the same ambitions or abilities, etc.

However, we all have the same most valuable possession and we deserve the opportunity to make the most of it. We all have that same greatest gift, that same moral standard. We all want to make the most of our limited time on this earth, to find the most comfort and enjoy the most happiness possible. And we all deserve that opportunity.

Only you can know what brings you comfort or makes you happy. Others can only guess.

Life is a series of choices. With life as your standard of value, then a good choice will make your life better, and a bad choice notsomuch.

Once each of us recognize that nothing is more valuable to us than our individual lives, we’re now positioned to make good choices. Who gets us up in the morning? Keeps us clean? Feeds us? Knows when we’re not well? Makes us comfortable? Worries about our happiness? Worries about making ourselves valuable to others? If you think someone else should be concerned about all these things and not you, good luck. Imagine how far we would have come if we all just waited for someone else to take care of us. Who would those unlucky souls be? And how would they have been stuck with that job?

Yes, your parents got that job, but only for the time it takes to make you a functional human. Once your brain is fully formed, you are capable of making moral decisions and on you go. Or at least, you should be.

Some will say that your child’s life is more valuable to you than your own. That may be true to a large degree, but how much good can you be for your child if you’re not taking care of yourself first?

Others will say that your family or your church or your business is more valuable than your life, but ultimately that logic falls apart. You’re of little value to any of those if you don’t value yourself first. After that, and only after that, can you be of value to others. In fact, of tremendous value to others.

Many argue that the climate deserves our full attention, and there’s little reason to disagree. But when you ask why, the honest answer is because our survival depends on our climate. That doesn’t make climate the standard of value. To the contrary, it underscores that human life is the standard of value and climate is important in support of that standard. The hierarchy matters. Understanding what is most important in your value system matters. If climate was the standard of value, and we determined that we humans are the cause of climate degradation, than the logical conclusion would be to do away with all of us humans who are degrading the climate. If you think that climate is the ultimate value, then good luck, because in that value system, you’re the problem and you’re not going to like the solution.

Our climate is important to our survival. That’s why climate is important to us, because our highest value is our individual lives. We need to focus on what matters most first. We need to focus on getting ourselves in order first before we worry about the climate.

Getting ourselves in order is “the oxygen mask rule”. Most of us have flown enough that we hardly pay attention to the important life lesson handed out at the beginning of every flight: you won’t be of any value to others if you pass out before you get your oxygen mask on. To be of value, you need to focus on yourself first.

As human beings, we are conscious of our existence and that our lives are finite. We are born with the capacity to learn, to improve ourselves and our situations. We learn the world is a hostile and amazing place, requiring we find security and presenting us with great opportunity. We have to work to have shelter or to find sustenance. We learn cooperating with others makes this process easier, with some of us providing places to live, while others make clothing and still others acquire and prepare food. We learn that the more we make ourselves valuable to others, the greater our resources and opportunities.

Understanding that life is the essential value all humans share is the key to not only a successful life but also a successful society. It provides a clarity that is desperately needed.

Being productive is a good choice. This will make your life better.

Cooperating with others is a good choice. It multiplies our ability to make our lives better.

Protecting each other from the use of force by others is another good choice. It builds trust and allows us to focus on our capacity for good.

The list of would continue to expand into more complex concepts, such as protecting each other from coercion, cronyism, regulatory capture, and the many other forms of corruption that we currently allow ourselves to look past and ignore.

Life requires action. Actions require decisions. Decisions require choices. Choices require some way of measuring what is going to better achieve the outcome we want. This requires some standard of value. Human life is that standard. When you recognize that your life is your standard of value, you provide yourself with a way of making choices and taking actions that make your life better. No one is better positioned to do this for you than you.

If you believe this, let’s move forward with the making of a more just society, because now we have a basis of belief to build from.

Further reading:

This segment started with a quote from Jordan Peterson from an interview titled “The Importance of Being Ethical”. Few are better equipped to expand on this idea as he has done in his book “Twelve Rules for Life: An Anecdote to Chaos”. He may not agree that our lives should be the basis of our value systems, but he makes a great case for it with this book.