@@> On Apr-10-98 Day Brown wrote to David Martorana
 @@> on  "Biological Morality"
 
 DB> Then I take it that the Chalcolithic Aryan invention of a supreme
 DB> God*dess* would be a genetic mammalian advance to that chauvinism
 DB> typical of all the other primates, including the other races?
 
     I believe the inference was more the genetic predisposition to
     pursue "Godism" (instinctive). [mammalian follow the leader-
     .....carefully]
 
 DB> Your other post citing the greatest good for the greatest number;
 DB> is that the greatest number only those alive now, or should there
 DB> be some calculation of the greatest number including posterity?
 
  You tease me to say as we wish from gods! As game we can play
  prophesy ....but only as game. We usually conjure a best shot
  favoring the near term ...and even than any surety is more hope
  than brilliance. Long term? Fine words and VERY "little" lost sleep!
  Our ecosystem will be destroyed as we invent enhanced lungs
  and find beauty in animated magnesium trees that double as lightning
  rods to fuel our lives and entertain the kids. If we don't destroy
  ourselves, a future will have a few laughs at who we thought we were
  (if we still will be!).
 
 DB> So, can you *sacrifice* some number now for a somewhat greater in
 DB> the future?  History, Greek history in particular, suggests there
 DB> is a considerable return on investment in doing so.  The Liberals
 DB> seem generally unable to make this calculation, and unable to put
 DB> the guilt in doing so in any long term light.
 
  Aside from the myriad ways we might measure "return on investment",
  we would have to define the rules of the game (to someone's suspected
  advantage or disadvantage). As to "LIBERALs" "seeming" to "generally" and
  cursed by darkmanship guilt ....HO HO the Gods be ever in contention.
 
  Neither you nor I have the foggiest insights as to the results
  of Liberal or "less than liberal" fingers on the "NONSENSE" buttons.
 
  Our survival, if it even has any meaning, depends on luck or the
  intervention/guidance of nature if She has need of us (*IF*).
  To say more is manufacturing (our) importance while we play in a
  tiny sandbox! Is there a something else? A very perhapsy maybe!!!
 
 DB> IIRC, one of the points Aristotle made, unlike the Bible, or some
 DB> other supposedly wise documents, was that if you wish to do good,
 DB> you would do well to figure out how long the good you do would be
 DB> good *for*.  Unless you are willing, as Neitzsche said, to accept
 DB> this guilt, you cannot do anything that lasts.
 
  There would be no way for Aristotle to figure out any serious
  "how long *for*" any more than Neitzsche's "accepted guilt" to be
  of any meaning. There are so many words that SOUND better than their
  worth.
 
 DB> To some considerable extent, this was adopted by the Nazis,
 DB> as an excuse to do anything in the name of what they saw as
 DB> *progress*. So, to sacrifice the good of some now, for the
 DB> good of some more, later in the future, is indeed- a slippery slope.
 
     Yes...a real game played by many on all sides of right and wrong
     and wrong and right...........and much in mix thereof!
     Can you imagine if the Indians had won? ....or the South winning
     with Bobby Lee becoming president ??? Yes it is all only simple for
     our comfort and postings !!! Except for brief burps through history,
     bigger sharks eat littler sharks [that the food chain remain sacred].
 
 DB> However, to over-compensate to avoid any likeness to Nazis is not
 DB> prudent, as the overpopulation and the third world devastation of
 DB> ecosystems that results, is obviously demonstrating.  So, who has
 DB> the right to judge your morality David- your contemporaries, or a
 DB> posterity you cannot easily see?
 
  Being a kindly hedonist, I would tend to the shortest term judgement
  (contemporaries) in keeping with my best interests (for morality or any
  other "ality" in the mix) .....unless called upon to be a hero, in which
  case all would have to wager on my emotional "do gooder" buttons not
  being too rusty !!!! NOTE: It would make no difference if the morality
  was biological, came out of a book or was peppered upon us by heaven!
  I'm not picky!
 
                           @@>--- Dave
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