Civilisation, the thin veneer of morality which covers all of us, is very fragile. When everything is going well it makes us follow the rules and gives us guidance on what is right or wrong. We know what is the right thing to do and so we tend to follow our morals then we follow the laws although sometimes our man made laws make no sense to us.
But it is very thin. The slightest excuse and it is gone.
Being civilised is not an in built mechanism for us. We are basically animals and when the veneer cracks we will quickly return to animal ways, our base instincts will come to the fore. It is basically the fact that we have lived in a civilised society backed by laws and policed by others that we do what we know is right and the power to back those rules we don’t believe in that makes sure we do not stray from the rest. It protects the weak and ensures that we are just in our dealings. It helps that most of the rules that were put in place over decades were fair and just. We are happy to follow them. More recent rules are less so and thus we are slowly losing all respect for them. The problem with this is that once you start breaking the laws, and not suffering the punishments we think we deserve, we then consider ourselves as law breakers and the other laws, the ones we should be following, are also treated with contempt and we start breaking them as well. Once you have crossed the line then it is easier to do so again. It’s the opposite of the Health and Safety mantra. They look at each area and say we can make this safer. They are right but it comes with a big cost, both financially and on freedom. Law breaking is the same; break a little law then next time a slightly bigger law and so on. Very few jump directly to murders without passing through things like bullying, torture and killing of animals without cause.
If this recession bites really deep and people are put in the situation where the law conflicts with what they need to do to survive. People will adapt to the environment and fall back on their base instincts. Criminals will be running free and with no plod to stop them they will be seen as getting away with it so the choices are stay as a permanent victim, join in on the other side of the law or take the law into your own hands and pass out your own justice. All three choices will be taken by currently law abiding people as their situations chance depending on the circumstances for each of them and each will have made the right choice in their views.
Now there is a sliding scale for everyone on everything. All things being equal we generally conform to the law but if the circumstances are right you won’t. Would you kill a man you didn’t know in the street because he swore at you? Of course you wouldn’t. Now imagine that you were in your home and that same someone had just killed your pet and was heading towards the children. How about now? The line is different for everyone and shifts depending on circumstances.
Our morals are more fragile than we like to think about and are already starting to fracture.
Many laws we have introduced over the last few decades are not seen by all as good things. Three good examples are laws on racism, feminism and paedophilia. There are many more I could have chosen. All these introduced for a reason and all fully justifiable, even in our own minds, so we have difficulty disagreeing. We pride ourselves as having progressed where in fact we have not progressed much since we left the caves in these regards. It is all surface coating or lip service to the law.
Take racism. All men are seen to be equal regardless of colour. That should be true and people should be treated as if skin colour does not matter. In many cases that is the case now but it is not in our nature and those who wish to discriminate will always manage to do it. In the meantime when people are given preferential treatment the true racism is made apparent and a disgruntled citizen is created. Maybe not a racist before but certainly having a bias now. The problem nowadays is that racism is used as a reason from someone not getting something they want when many other factors are at work. Don’t get the job you wanted it was because they are racist. Never mind that there were 500 people applying for it and 100 of those were better qualified. Didn’t leave school with any qualifications. It was because the teachers were racist. Never mind the fact you were never there and had no interest in paying attention when you were. Employers want the best person for the job and it is not in their interests to discriminate. Only exception is Public Sector who mainly look at ticking equality boxes and we all complain at their performance. I would suggest that racism is worse now than it was 15 years ago and little of that is the fault of the people.
Feminism is similar because men and women are to be treated as equals. Again that should be true but nature conspires against us. We are not alike. We don’t even think alike, have the same mentality and the women are less risk takers. They are the ones who carry children and almost every society on Earth considers them the child rearer and the man the bread winner and this is even used in a court of law. Feminism as we know it is dying. It’s outspoken critics no better than politicians. Men have learnt quickly and are leaving the outspoken ones on the shelf. For basic sex many are turning to prostitutes and get the sex without the nagging and hand in the wallet. That is why they are trying desperately to criminalise men who ‘victimise’ prostitutes. They are starting to find they are past middle age and been left on the shelf with no marriage and no children. How can the propagate their message? It’s laughable really. They hate men but in doing so they make men hate them and pay the price in love and marriage by destroying marriage as a union. Although most of us could care less about women’s rights we will all remember the campaigns to make all men rapists and to criminalise us for political gain.
Finally paedophilia. Someone decided an arbitrary age and it is illegal to have sex below that. Of course it is different around the world and also difficult to tell age. The real issue is youth is seen as fertile and young people are seen as innocent. Many people and cultures prize that. The sliding scale means that even at the extreme ends, babies, some real nutters see them as sexually attractive although it’s in our nature to look for the fertile young ones. There will always be those at the extremes in anything with groups of people in. Never mind the porn just look at our newspapers. Nobody has any page 3 grannies. It’s all 18 to 20 year olds, younger if they can find a good reason and as it sells papers we all guzzle it up. We all like looking at young things. Remember Charlotte Church when she was only 13 or 14? How people commented on her body. Men like to be around young women no matter how old they are themselves. Nature made women fertile long before they matured mentally. Not man. I wonder if this was an evolutionary step because if it was the other way around the species would have died out with all the feminists saying ‘No, I have a headache’. I would envisage that when plod stops coming around one of the first things we will find returning is child brides and mistresses. It seems like it happens now more than ever despite all our laws.
This short list is just as examples. You can add many more I’m sure and each will have a legitimate argument that the course taken is right but we have gone too far in them all and restricted people freedoms, taken their jobs and destroyed lives in these campaign yet it will be to no avail. This has lead to many having legitimate complains against society in general. That’s you and me btw. If I criticise a black person I am racist even if that criticism is true and fair, a woman I call a feminist makes me a misogynist and sexist but she can imply I am a rapist because all men are dirty and only interested in one thing without censure and if I object to not being allowed to photograph my kids on sports day I’m a paedophile. We are all too scared to speak out about these because to come to the attention of plod or social services is not good nowadays, not that it ever was, but nowadays in our KGB style world it has a special meaning.
So now we are falling headlong into a recession and it is not looking good. The Government is stuck in a hole of its own making and soon it will not be able to make ends meet. People are extremely unhappy about the governments handling of the issue and even ardent Labour supporters know where to point the finger (finally) although our sliding scale works here as well and many think they are still good for the country despite the facts.
We just have to hope that the situation does not deteriorate too far because it can get ugly as our base instincts will start to come to the fore. They are doing so already as initially we get selfish then violent. As it gets worse more people will have to make some uncomfortable choices. Regardless of whether there are riots or not and they invoke the anti democracy laws they have rolled out there will be many places in the UK that Plod or the Army just won’t go if it gets violent. There just are not enough of them and they will just contain it and let it burn itself out. It seems like the IRA are back as well and you know how difficult it was for the Army and Plod to deal with them. When we are all at it think how long our pitifully few Military and Plod will last with no resting place. Ordinary people are disarmed and will therefore be unable to do anything about it and life will be very untenable in those areas so best start making nice to the bad guys or at the very least don’t antagonise them. You will need them for their contacts.
I pity, but not for long, all the little despots, usually powerless unless backed up by laws enforced by plod, who will suddenly find their victims will suddenly remember that they were the ones that blocked their planning application for an extension, that they stole equipment from the shed and reported the out of date tax disk to plod. Most people here already know where our MP lives so trying to hide will be a waste of time. Revenge is sweet and best served cold.
I do feel sorry for all the Pakistanis etc. who have been here 40 odd years. Have brought their kids up right, never claimed a penny from the state, kept themselves to themselves and paid their taxes as they get persecuted for all the recently arrived layabouts and wanna be terrorists. As a group they may be better armed than us but there are just not enough of them to overrun us at the moment. I bet many will leave for other countries and in some cases that will be a loss for us and a culture shock for them. Kids born here from parents born here but not seen as British. That isn’t right but what is in turbulent times.
The rest of it will revert, women will lose their positions and men will assert theirs. Marriage will come back on to the agenda. Children will lose their innocence and we will start the cycle again. Perhaps next time we come around equality in all ways will be part of who we are and not require legislation but it’s been unequal for thousands of years so somehow I just don’t see it ever changing.
Base instincts. Human nature. Not quite built into the genes but the next level up
Now think forward as many years as you think it will take for us to conquer the stars. Imagine our initial little outposts on far flung planets. We are talking about the Wild West type pioneers here. Going out with our wagons to hostile new environments and turning it into a home. Do you really think they will keep all the laws we have put in place today? Can you really see a mixed community with people of different races and religions? People will gravitate towards what they know and are comfortable with. Baptists will go out with other Baptists etc. They won’t want any religious upsets because it will be bad enough without them. Would you want to be part of a community with ardent feminists in? I think I’ll go out with the Baptists instead myself. It will be teams, communities and social groups that go out to make a better life for themselves and they will pick their team members with care to ensure as little friction as possible. Oh dear. It’ll be back to what we are comfortable with and with no PC box ticking of personality types to ensure we get a nice PC mix. They will be trying to make sure that they are given the best chance at succeeding.
Unless we can get near instantaneous travel between our colonies then they will instantly become separate communities who make their own laws, their own customs and look upon outsiders with suspicion. Then instead of the UK, USA, China etc. all doing their own thing we will have New Britain, New USA and New China on separate planets all with their own culture and laws. Many will be lawless as people spread out over planets to make their own communities.
I wonder how long it will take for some to declare independence and then for some to go to war. We after all will be taking our base instincts with us.
Immortality. What does it mean to you?
Now I have spent a little bit of time thinking about this subject. What exactly would be immortality? Where is the point where you would consider yourself dead?
Basically I can see in the not too distant future that we will be able to replace every part of the human body. In effect making a complete replacement possible. However I would not see that replacement being me. Even if it had my memories and looked exactly like me it would still be a facsimile and not me. I would be in another body or dead and that one would still exist.
Personally I believe that what we class as you is in your brain. Thus if my brain was removed and put in a robot it would still be me. So replace my heart, body, head whatever and I would still be me. My brain would contain my essence or if you like my soul.
In some cultures your soul resides in your heart but nobody in the West would consider you dead if your heart was replaced via a heart transplant. Same with a liver or kidney transplant. It’s just seen as a replacement. Yet if you had a new brain transplanted we would consider you have been replaced and a new person was occupying your body.
So I’ll stick with the brain being the one component that defines the real you.
Now in the future I see us being able to augment our memories and memory capacity by simply plugging in more. It could be made up with your own stem cells, mouse stem cells or even some technology like a solid state drive but to your mind it would just be some more memories you can access or some more storage space for new memories or even some new ways of managing or processing the information.
But now the sticky part. Assume 10% of your unaugmented brain dies. You replace it with an augment, reload the memories and you are back to where you were. Have you actually died? Assuming we have souls what has happened to yours? If 10% is not OK with you what about people with significant, lets say 60%, brain damage that are still alive but can do nothing for themselves? Are they dead? Law doesn’t think so. So if we augment their brains to give those people a decent life what does that mean in reality? Anyway if 60% is acceptable how about 70%, 80% …. Where do you draw the line before you are dead? It’s tricky and thinking about it is enough to make you brain dead.
In the meantime of course our brain cells are dying by the millions. Could it be God’s little trick to ensure we don’t live forever?