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morality virus
Wednesday, September 13 2000
Today as I zipped down the alleys of eastern Santa Monica I realized something kind of interesting: from a distance a white toilet tank looks an awful lot like a PC computer chassis.
As I was eating a lunch of Popeye's fried chicken thighs, I found myself thinking about the extent to which human morality is relative. Consider:
1. Thou shalt not kill.
(Except when it's an animal or plant you wish to eat or otherwise use pieces thereof.)
(Except when it's an unwanted or damaging body part or gestating child.)
(Except when it's a fellow human being who has committed serious crimes.)
(Except when it's a fellow human being who is threatening your life.)
(Except when it's a fellow human who is a member of a foreign army which is at war with the army representing your country.)
2. Thou shalt not steal.
(Unless the thing being taken belongs to an animal or plant.)
(Unless the thing being taken belongs to a country at war with your own.)
(Unless the thing being taken belongs to someone who has been charged with the sale or manufacture of drugs.)
The fact that such clear, seemingly unambiguous mandates have so many qualifications even in the context of our advanced, supposedly enlightened culture seems to reflect something about the underlying morality: it's not absolute at all, it's a compromise. Not only is it a compromise, but it's one tweaked over the years to best serve the selfish interests of the genes being reproduced within it. Why are we forbidden to murder? It's not, as we're led to believe, "because every life is sacred." (See the many qualifications to that rule listed above.) No, it's because a society that allows people to solve their problems with violence is implicitly de-emphasizing the value of intellect and societal co-operation. While murder might benefit the genes of the strong and anti-social, it doesn't serve the society as a whole and ultimately leaves it weakened and susceptible to invasion. To keep this from happening, we are forbidden to murder (except in the cases where it doesn't harm society). After all, when a society is overrun by invaders bearing a more successful set of societal rules, the rules belonging to the old culture are lost. This is why there are no cultures left on Earth where it's cool to solve your neighbor disputes with murder.
I think it's useful to look at how the spread of memes on every level ultimately select for the memes that spread and persist most effectively, whether they be at the level of the gene, the species, the religion, the economic system, the society, the operating system, the language, or the music genre. Our morality is nothing more than a meme, a framework that best promotes its ultimate goal: the spread and persistence of itself. It's not shimmering and special, nothing to talk sanctimoniously about on the campaign trail. It's just another virus in a complex ecology of many rivals and symbiotes.
Do you agree that morality is another ruthless self-promoting meme?
I ended up using some grease from my fried chicken to oil my big faux-Kryptonite bike lock, which has been sticking lately.
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