Social Exchange Theory and Divine Insurance Policies

One of the most famous theories in the discipline of communication is Social Exchange Theory. Very simply put, humans evaluate the costs and benefits of each relationship, and pursue those relationships that give them satisfaction from within this economic mindset, and leave relationships that fail to yield more benefits than costs.

Basically, people will suffer pains in a relationship, but only in so far as they are outweighed by the pleasure. The theory also predicts that people compare the satisfaction levels that they could be getting from alternate relationships, and pursue the opportunities that promise the most overall beneficial path.

It's pretty straight forward, and it seems to be an intuitive approach to the movement of human relationships.

Right...

Let me take a deep breath.

Ok.

I fucking hate Social Exchange Theory. It reduces a wildly complicated process of virtues and values, and creates an economy of the human spirit. I trade these things for those things. It utterly fails to describe my experience of relationships. I also think it fails to describe my behavior.

Now, don't get me wrong. I do things that benefit me. I spend time with people I enjoy. I like it when people do things that make my life easier. I also do things for others. I suffer pain for the sake of ends that are not directly my own. But to connect these two aspects of human interaction in a mercantile way fails to account for the reality of relationships.

First off, there's loyalty. Many of the things I do for others is out of a sense of loyalty. I put up with crap from people I am duty bound to simply because I have an obligation, and not because they are heaping rewards on my life. The proponent of SET has a few responses. They could say that my loyalty restricts my options, and therefor limits my actions. But it doesn't actually eliminate my options, those options are still options, I just choose otherwise (going against the theory). They could also try to cast loyalty as one of the benefits I get from the relationship. What? I don't seek relationships to reward me with loyalty. I am loyal, a personal characteristic that concerns relationships, but to say I get loyalty from relationships I stay in is to put it precisely wrong. I maintain relationships because I am loyal.

Eventually, as you measure scenarios by SET you get a rapidly increasing list of very weird benefits and costs. Not having to face disappointment as a benefit. Loyalty as a benefit. Rejection of cultural values as a cost. SET started off saying, "The reason people stay in or leave relationships is because of an analysis of benefits and costs." If in the process of applying the theory every reason people stay in or leave a relationship becomes a benefit or cost, then SET ends up saying, "The reasons people stay in or leave relationships is because of the reasons they stay in or leave relationships." Read it again. We call this a tautology in the game, and tautologies aren't highly thought of as explanations. Useful for communicating an underlying ideology, but not as a outward description. "Cost and reward" have to mean something different than "the reason's people stay or leave relationships," in order for the theory to have descriptive power. If they don't, SET isn't actually a theory, but rather a paradigm that casts human interaction as economical.

A subtle but important difference. A theory is something used to explain, describe, and predict objects, people, and events. It can be systematically tested, and disproven. But a paradigm... a worldview... now that's a different animal. Worldviews aren't the sort of thing that are proven or disproven, but rather can only be roughly compared to other worldviews. Even rough comparisons are fraught with difficulty, as worldviews 1.) tend to support themselves circularly, and 2.) often contain beliefs concerning warrant, that is, they have opinions about what counts as evidence, and finally, 3.) usually include claims about what the most important goals are, that they, unsurprisingly, pursue better than other worldviews.

But, despite the difficulties, we will do our best. Is SET (or should we rechristen it Social Exchange Paradigm? SEP? Out of respect, lets not.) a legitimate way of looking at the world? I think not. I think one could view everything from within this lens... but this vision distorts the realities of what is actually going on inside the minds of many people.

It is true, I think, that many people do make economical decisions concerning relationships. But not everyone, and I also believe that even economically minded people will move into other decision making models in certain situations. It just doesn't capture the love, fear, compassion, dignity, duty, goodness, and spite that motivates human actions. People also stay in and leave relationships to uphold oaths, fulfill unspoken commitments, be a support system, cause pain, seek spiritual truths, simplify situations, challenge the other, and a whole host of other reasons that are not economical.

Just because SET can look at these things, casting them as cost and benefits, doesn't make it an adequate characterization of the events. There are events beyond a logical, self serving model. Even if an equation can be constructed about the ways an action is logical or self serving, it does not make the story true.

SET fails to vividly represent the scope of human behavior.

Another way of measuring a paradigm is by looking at the reality it creates. SET encourages a selfish model, placing the importance on the person, and assigns them a moral freedom to move in any way that way that most benefits them. Give birth to a child who whines? Eats too much? Votes Republican? If they don't benefit you enough to overcome the trouble they cause... move on. What?!?

What about a worldview that encouraged the moral treatment of all, devoted to seeking the good of the self, as well as the other, and looked at all the gifts and resources available and tried to assign, develop, and release them toward the service of the greatest good? While this doesn't capture the experience of all people, either... if you value human thriving, goodness, and equity, isn't it a better goal?

At this point I would like to turn my attention to another economical model that describes what I feel is a fundamentally non-economical situation. I like to call it the Divine Insurance Policy.

Many religious people seek spiritual reward by suffering through earthly situations. They concern themselves with learning the rules of God, and abide by those rules so that they receive the promise of impossible reward. Consider a stripped down version of Christianity. Do good things, that way you get into heaven and live forever in paradise.

Ok.

Deep breath.

Here we go.

What the fuck?!? How is an act a good one if your reward is infinite pleasure? Any person capable of thinking strategically on a timeline would choose temporary suffering in exchange for eternal satisfaction. Only the impatient, ignorant, or non-believing would act otherwise.

Trust me, this is a bad way of approaching this issue. Ever met a self-righteous person, so convinced that they have earned their way into heaven, that they are incapable of treating those who are different with compassion or reflecting critically on their beliefs and behaviors? It's sick. All we have to do is make these payments of church attendance, intellectual submission, and do some things we don't want to and we earn our way into heaven.

Earn?!? The Christian vision of heaven is so much more than anything we could ever accomplish by our own actions, and it was made real to us by a sacrifice more beautiful than we could ever deserve. No belief we could ever entertain, nor any act we could ever perform, could lead to the salvation wrought by Christ's death on the cross.

And what does Christ ask in return for a debt we could never pay? That we be like him. That we listen to the Father for the best ways to serve others, and that we not hold them indebted to us by the things we do.

Love unconditionally. Refuse to meter out your devotion, compassion, and service only to those who can return the favor. Make your commitment to the well being of all things unbreakable, so that even in the darkest hours you work for the good of the world.

The gifts of God are not to be measured by economy. Human interaction is not to be measured by economy. Fuck, while we're at it, let's stop measuring wealth and human success economically. Economies serve those who have and enslave those who don't. Break the system. Spend your money to create the world you want to see, give to the needy, and refuse to lose sight of the blessings in your life. You don't deserve even 1/10 of what you earn when compared to the work environments and compensations on the world stage.

Shatter any notion of earning anything. Instead be thankful for the things you have, and when you have undazed yourself from the dizzying awe that comes from staring into the infinite vastness of the things for which you can be grateful, do your best to be thankful.



P.S. - Being thankful, in case you were wondering, means putting all your amazing gifts to work. For you, for God, for everyone.

Impossible Hopes

Too often we let the weight of the realities of the world press us down. We have hope, this passing fancy, that in the end everything is going to be all right. But secretly we know, deep down, that things are going to keep sucking, just like they suck right now.

Hope seems only ever to thrive when that which is hoped for is clearly possible. Take away the seeming possibility that you can achieve your hopes... and all hope is lost. While this may seem only natural, of course you can't hope for something that can't happen... it also makes hope fail precisely at the moment when you need it the most. When facing the inevitable.

Foster invulnerable hope. Try to hope for impossible things. Now, don't go hoping for impossible things you shouldn't have, like for power beyond measure, or for people to change so that they love you. But develop in yourself a ludicrous strain of hope that is capable of attaining a vision of wildly, unlikely, and downright impossible events of moral, intellectual, personal, spiritual, physical, and social triumph.

This will tend to improve your mood. It will also improve your thinking. Too often people decide what is possible before even ever giving it a shot. In my short life I have hoped for many audacious things, and many of them turned out to be actually possible.

Why do people give up hope for the impossible? They don't want to be fools. They don't want to get caught believing in something that could never come to pass. What an arrogant bunch of bull. All they succeed at is never being wrong.

I'd gladly be wrong, and hope for something that was never going to be, if it meant that I also accepted and helped actualize events that seemed impossible but actually were tenable. If my audacious hope makes me a fool, so be it. It also makes me unbreakable, innovative, and positive.

An unbreakable, innovative, positive fool. I'll take it.

We often think that our hope fails when it should. That when the light finally fades away, that it is now the time when despair should take hold. When carrying a valuable, heavy object, and someone drops it, do we all think, "Well, he dropped it when he should." No, we think, "If he had been a bit stronger, he wouldn't have dropped it." Don't wanna drop large, expensive things? Go to the gym. Take responsibility for your strength.

We should feel the same responsibility to our moral strength. When we fail ourselves or our commitments we should take it as a sign that we need moral exercise. Go to the moral gym, as it were. Use the spiritual communities in your life to motivate your personal growth. Find people you look up to and ask what they do to stay in morally excellent condition. Consider the activities that hone your spirit into things you want to become.

Push yourself. Don't hide behind self descriptions that limit your potential or lower the standard of conduct you have committed yourself to.

Now, keep in mind that moral cultivation can be satisfying, but it is ultimately for serving the world. Don't become overly proud about your accomplishments, and don't put your inner conditioning as a higher priority than serving the outside world. Also, keep in mind that you do not achieve good on your own, but hone yourself to be an ever greater instrument of God's work.

The Moral Heart

There is endless power withing the many chambers of the human heart. Being ignorant of the potency of your emotional life is great folly.

Happiness does great good. It showers those around you with joy, helping them see the blessings that put you in your buoyant mood.

Beware. Irresponsible happiness can make you ignore the suffering of others, estranging them in their time of need.

Sadness does great good. It demonstrates the value of what has been lost, teaches smallness, and is one of the tenderest moments of humanity.

Beware. Irresponsible sadness can make you ignore the blessings that exist in the world, even in the midst of your time of need.

Anger does great good. Pious indignation at injustice is a powerful catalyst for change, empowering the angry and intimidating the wrong doer.

Beware. Irresponsible anger can turn you into a monster, wrecking harmful havoc in the lives of those around you.

Sympathy does great good. It develops our ability to learn from other people, as well as offering them emotional respite.

Beware. Irresponsible sympathy can soften your ability to criticize what is actually wrong.

Excitement does great good. It heightens the energy of situations, galvanizing them, making them more powerful and intense.

Beware. Irresponsible excitement can distract you from things that are actually important and can force events that should not yet happen to prematurely occur.

Calm does great good. It smooths out the human experience, and softens the senses to the point where they can perceive subtle truths.

Beware. Irresponsible calm can cause you to ignore the pressing issues in your life, lazily letting you fail to act when you need.

Courage does great good. It empowers you to act when you would otherwise hesitate.

Beware. Irresponsible courage can lead you to ignore your own well being and resort to unnecessary means.

Fear does great good. It fills your blood with power and allows you to act in a powerful way, manifesting your most basic desires.

Beware. Irresponsible fear can paralyze a person beyond action, or worse, strike out against false foes.

The Moral Imagination, plus Spew

Never underestimate the role of your imagination in your every experience. Your imagination is more than just the author of fancies. It is the faculty that connects events in your experience. Consider the draft theory of colds. It was an imaginative process that linked the event of the draft and the infirmed catching the cold. That one's easy.

But consider now the germ theory of colds. While it is true (according to our best medical science) that those germs cause colds, is that in any way your experience of the event? Not in the least. Just like the draft leads to colds notion, the germs leads to colds notion is an imaginative event, connecting two events (like the sharing of a drink with a person with a cold and catching the cold).

When considering what is real, keep in mind that any causal picture of the world relies on authoring imaginative connections between events otherwise simply correlated in time and space. Just because they are accurate does not mean they are any less a function of the mind. The goal, then, becomes striving to create useful and realistic imaginations. People who wouldn't share a strangers drink for fear of germs but would have sex with them without a condom don't really have their heads in the right place.

The imagination also highlights and obfuscates aspects of reality. By letting you mind play to one aspect of an experience or another shapes your attitude toward that event. No one cheats while imagining their partner heartbroken, sobbing in the corner. Rather, they imagine the awesome sex they aren't having. Do they ever imagine awkward or bad sex? Nope.

Even subconsciously humans use their imaginations to guide their actions. Be conscious about it. If you find your mind painting one part of reality in great detail, and leaving another unrendered, beware. You are about to fall prey to a self deception.

You can even use your imagination strategically to motivate moral action. When tempted by something, systematically envision the negative or undesirable aspects of that path. When trying to achieve a difficult end, be vivid about your conception of the good end.

Imagine true things. People with vivid imaginations are more likely to respond to distant moral issues. Nearly everyone helps the family member suffering in front of them. But as more distant comes between the actor and the suffering, be that distance be physical or emotional, people stop helping. Foster an intense imaginative world, and use it to create the realities that are not immediately imposing themselves on your world. In this way, you can broaden the scope of your compassion.

Pay attention to the words you use to create categories, for they direct the tenor of your thinking. Few would say, "Cook that flesh medium rare," when ordering a steak, or, "Ouch, there's a piece of meat hanging from my scrape!" when recently suffering from a wound. By creating separate categories through language we create the ability to judge those categories differently even when perhaps they should be treated the same.

Seek to increase the range of your compassion. Consider more than yourself. Consider more than your family. Consider more than your friends and neighbors. Consider more than your country. Consider more than your race. Consider more than your species. Consider everything. Look hard at absolutely everything and ask honestly what its good is. You will soon find that it is very difficult to achieve all goods, but you may start seeing ways where you can dramatically increase the good of something else without too much cost to other important things.

Admit that you can be wrong. Many people defend the unfounded morality of their actions because they don't want to be wrong. While it may be hard to admit that you have been doing ill for your entire life, bullheadedly defending your error and continuing to do ill for the remainder of your life is much worse.

Trust in the learning curb. It is difficult to acquire new moral lifestyles. Acquiring any lifestyle involves learning. Trust me, it gets easier. As you start to get used to it, you pick up tricks, you share other ideas, you get into the groove. While it may be impossible to instantaneously alter every behavior you have to become a beacon of moral perfection, you can start with one or two things. As they become automatic parts of your life, pick one or two more. A lot of us have a while in this life.

You can become a saint. Saints are people. People who didn't let the difficulties of their time pass unaddressed. Do not underestimate your moral potential, or the impact you have on other people.

Respect the role of you mood in determining the manifestation of your altruism. You are more likely to give to others in a moment of gratitude concerning the abundance in you life than you are in a fit of curmudgenliness. Knowing this, be mindful of you mood, and foster activities and relationships that put you in your best moods.

Unlock your gifts. Each of us has bestowed upon us talents and abilities. Develop yours. Focus it through training. Supplement it with skills. Apply it with passion. You will soon find that you have amazing potential. Great works of goodness are still works of greatness. Train.

Put yourself in an ideal environment. Our personalities and spirits need particular influences. Figure out what you need, then seek the people, places, and activities that feed you.

Develop your personal convictions. Even if all your intentional actions aren't toward a moral end, defending a belief or becoming a particular thing against in the face of struggle develops your fortitude.

Personally, I abstain completely from recreational drugs and alcohol. It isn't because I think that using them is bad, or that the people who do them are evil. There are certainly bad uses, but many people I know participate in reasonable usage. Rather, abstainance is a source of personal power, a tribute to self control, and a challenge to be intentional with my attitude. I thrive as a better me, even as others thrive better with drinking and drug use. It has also been like a moral training program, helping prepare me do better choose in the future. Having that control of my lifestyle has helped me change other aspects of my life.

A bad act is one that upsets the right state of the universe. An evil act is a bad act done with maliciousness. While most would agree that an evil act is worse, as it does signify a disordered understanding of the world and a disordered appreciation of the world, bad things are still bad, and should be avoided. Just because you are destroying the environment without maliciousness does not make everything ok. The distinction between bad and evil is about the actor, and not the severity of the act.

Do not take pride in your moral success. Just because you behave in a more moral way than another does not make you better. Remember, doing good is about the world being better, not about you being better. Besides, as any runner will tell you, the desire to look behind you and see the people you are beating only slows you down. It arises out of the desire to stop working so hard if you are substantially ahead. Keep you eye on the goal, and don't focus on where you are concerning the rest of the runners. If you do anything, help them finish the race.

When trying to motivate moral action in others, proceed with care.

People do not react well to bullying. They tend to fight back, and you can often inoculate them to further persuasion. Even if your browbeating is successful, they are probably not oriented aesthetically in the right kind of way.

We can change other people. In fact, we can't help changing other people. Just by being part of their life changes them. What we cannot do is conform them to our particular desires.

If you want someone to behave differently, consider the economy of his or her human energy. No one can invent energy to worry about a problem or act in order to solve it. Any change necessitates an alteration of priorities, and likely a cessation of another activity or worry. If you can make it easier to change, or if you can give them support while the change is made, you will see your proddings more likely to succeed.

Chances are, you probably underestimate your potential. In fact, your estimation of your potential can be your single greatest obstacle. The most powerful times in my life were catalyzed by rejecting my limitations.

Take very seriously the power of a spiritual life in acting rightly. Being spiritual involves creating a relationship with the universe. Spirituality also often exposes otherwise unobserved blessings. Taken within the context of the power of gratitude, imagine what feeling universally grateful might to to someones ability to serve strangers.

Take very seriously the power of a prayer life in acting rightly. Being prayerful involves humility. It also evokes divine power. Consider the transformative power of becoming vulnerable in the face of divinity. Small wonder those with intense prayer lives serve in intense ways.

Signs have power. They communicate the details of a calling and motivate devotion to a cause. Be careful, however. A sign is only a sign if it comes to you. If you spend all your time looking for a sign its going to be an imaginative act whereby you attach significance to an otherwise uneventful event. While this isn't bad in itself, many bad actions have been "justified" by these false signs. Do not arbitrarily invent divine agreement with your desires.

You are not in control. Neither am I. At best, we are gardeners, tending to the world with careful hands, trying to create a healthy environment for that which is to grow. There is another force that causes the actual thriving of the plants, and that is beyond our control. Don't be discouraged by this. Rather, take great comfort in the fact that you aren't responsible for the functioning of all creation, and focus on doing the good you can actually do.

Seek enlightenment. Ecstatic experiences are the pinnacle of beauty, and are often the moments of most perfect clarity. Great truths far and wide have been revealed in moments of fruitful seeking. Enlightenment is also a powerful motivator, serving as a bottomless well of patience and compassion.

Appreciate the beauty of sublime moments. They will end. Ultimately, you are not in control of you enlightenment either. It will come and go by the devices of something greater than you. Best you can do is cultivate in yourself a way of being that makes you vulnerable to the subtle movements of the universe.

Power

Don't be seduced by the power cherished by the world around you. Those who amass power are often blind to the paradox that what is powerful is often weak and what is weak is often powerful.

Power is often weak. Potence is often edged and hardened to survive its own use. This rigidity can make the powerful unreactive and prone to shatter.

Weakness is often power. Submission and retreat never harms the enemy, but decimates the battlefield, striking a fatal blow at the ideologies that mustered the conflict.

Value flexibility and smallness. That which is formless can live in truth with any part of the world, and it is in the nooks of the world that the one finds the hidden blue prints of all creation.

Openness is as powerful an act as decisiveness.

Do not dismiss, however, the value of fortitude and intensity. Many problems can be solved by judicious use of obvious power. Break down what needs to be broken, and weather the storms that threaten the good.

Manifest paradoxical virtues. Reject the notion that you are a physical object, capable of only being in one place, and must be only one thing and not the opposite as well. It is within the scope of your humanity to be both great and small, clever and clueless, broken and whole, everchanging and ever the same.

Complexify your language about your emotional life. For instance, saying "I'm happy," or "I'm sad," makes it seem like you couldn't be the other, since you clearly couldn't be both. So learn better words, or make them up, to express your experience. You may even find that a better linguistic approach actually complexifies your actual emotional experiences. What a wonder actually paying attention will do.

When words fail, smile, as these are moments of sublime humanity. Then resort to unreasonable metaphors.

The more you let yourself be, the more you will become. Emotions are not reactions to the world or a power to be harnessed, but the most honest manifestation of you humanity you will ever manage. Revel in them, reveal them, and never revile them. Being behind an action emotionally will contribute to the success of the act and influence the satisfaction associated with it. Nurture and develop your emotional life so that how you feel is colorful, nuanced, and unstoppable.

When you swear an oath, swear to the spirit and the word. Clever misinterpretation of honorable words isn't a novel activity. It does not prove your intellect. Rather, devote your brainpower to trying to discern the original intention of the words, and do your best to move that notion into the present.

Pay attention to what is an oath and what is a casual possibility. Do not sully the powerful act of commitment by assigning unreasonable significance to everything everyone says. Be realistic about what the speaker said about being there at 8:00 pm.

When fulfilling oaths, do so with a willing spirit. If your attitude is sullying the actions required to uphold your responsibility, adjust your attitude. No one wants to be an onerous obligation, and do yourself a favor and prevent the difficultly created by wanting something different than your obligation.

Swear oaths with the fullness of knowledge, beauty, and goodness. Words spoken in this perfect light will lead only toward right action. Realize that since a flawless understanding of the universe will often elude humanity, some commitments will be made erroneously. If a oath must be broken because it will lead to an evil end, recommit yourself to the newly understood good.

Become vulnerable. Foster in yourself a susceptibility to the events in your life when things are promising good. More is learned in a moment of weakness than an eon of strength.

Practice shifting your viewpoint. Exercise your ability to see things from the other side, the other other side, your original side again, the side that sees all sides, and back again. By systematically shifting perception when nothing is at stake you will develop you ability to do it when everything is at stake.

Violence is always wrong. No end ever justifies it. Seek all possible alternatives... creatively, too. Spare no effort or resource in the pursuit of a pacifistic means.

It is never an affront to dignity to be beaten. Pride, posing as honor, seeks to be the victor.

Purpose is the single greatest factor in living a satisfying life. Pain without purpose is arbitrary suffering. Pleasure without purpose is mere happiness. Pain with purpose is intentional sacrifice. Pleasure with purpose is lasting joy.

Be attentive to the resources that regenerate and those that do not. Give freely of the fruits that will replenish, and prevent others from squandering those that will not.

Never underestimate your power to change the world. The myth of impotence causes many moral people to amoralize a situation through despair. It is precisely the collaborative inaction of hopeless people that allow atrocities to continue. Act, and encourage the action of those around you.

The Beginning

I want my life to be the beautiful and complex answer to a simple question –

How can I do the greatest possible good?


Don’t ask, “Am I a good person?” An affirmative answer is possibly more dangerous than a negative one, as already being a good person is the single greatest contributor to moral apathy I of which I know. Ask rather, “What am I doing to manifest my power to forge good for all creation?”

Good is not dictated by society; neither is it an arbitrary obedience of God.

Good involves the right alignment of the universe, a synergy of parts. While a culture’s values may shape the way good is made manifest in that particular place, the good end remains the same.

Good involves the right alignment of the universe, a synergy of parts. Good, therefore, has a value “apart” from the desires of the creator. God does not dictate by authority what is good. Rather, the world was created in such a way that right action is what brings it into healthier being. If God wished to change what was good, God would need to change the nature of the universe.

Good deeds are good. Being a good person is good. Good. It’s something that has value, it is worth having, on top of being right and just. Moral action need not be torturous. In fact, desiring something other than the good comes from a malalignment of the person; an incomplete understanding of the state of affairs.

Learn what is real. What is good puts the world in a more favorable arrangement. Knowing what is real will make the desire to do good more effective. In this why, the study of the real is in service of the good

Also, put the beautiful in service of the good. Strive to value in an immediate way what is right. Avoid mindsets that cause right action to seem unattractive, even if only for a moment. There is no accomplishment in detesting the good but doing so out of personal sacrifice. Such drama and staged surrender attains nothing, and indicates no stronger character. The greatest moral accomplishment is to be in aesthetic unity with the good of the world, such that you truly desire what is good.

Do not underestimate the power of conditioning. Systematic exposure to events and ideas shapes the human. Be aware of this, and be proactive concerning what your conditioned responses are. Great good can be done by those who are prepared.

Be careful what you learn. All experiences are teachers, but not all teachers lead you toward the truth. Callous and cynical lessons are often borne of bitter experiences, but that does not make them true.

Empathy is learning. An objective outlook should be rooted in justice, not abstraction from the realities of human experience.

Moral actions are actions, and in the reality of human experience actions need motivation. Rely heavily on the aesthetic attraction toward the good of the world to incite good action.

Gratitude is also a powerful motivator. Humans behave altruistically in situations they feel grateful for. Knowing this, you should foster benevolent tendencies by fostering a worldview of gratitude. Luckily, the world happens to be ever showered with blessings.

Do it now. While patience is an important contributor to fortitude and balance, it can also contribute to laziness and apathy. If something can be done now to improve the status of a person, society, or the environment, do it now. Be impatient about injustice.

The universe was not created eons ago, but is rather created in every moment of now. Our relationship with our creator is not a distant, strategic one, but rather one of intimate understanding.

Almost no one thinks they are full of shit. When you think someone is full of shit, ask, “What sort of mindset generates this talk/behavior?” Now, their perceptions don’t make it right, but understanding is both valuable for its own sake, and it facilitates further persuasion. You may also discover that you are the one that is full of shit.

Everything is not like the way you think. Not everyone thinks like you. There can be incredible disparity between people. Be respectful of this, and be cautious of the desire to conform everything and everyone to your standards.

We are not alone. Despite our differences, people share vast amounts of experience. The vividness of human emotion is very nearly a tongue of fire.

Similarly, we are not separated from the world. Break down the notion that the phenomenological aspect of human experience separates us from external things. Maintain a healthy skepticism about the ultimate nature of things, but recognize that our experience is what imbeds us in the world and the world in us.

Be attentive to your intellectual tastes. People often accept or reject beliefs based on a sort of aesthetics of ideologies. Not everything is balanced. Not everything is the third choice. Not everything is simple. Not everything is complex. Be wary that you do not let your desire for a particular shape of idea be your major critical mechanism. Many true ideas will fail to live up to your standards.

True intelligence should increase a person’s ability to thrive and contribute to the thriving of others. If someone is tortured by their genius, they either lack actual intellect or are being tortured by something else because of their genius. Do not idealize dark brilliance.

The good act is the smartest possible pursuit. Good is not dumb. Rather, an evil act is motivated out of incorrectly formed desires and out of an incomplete or erroneous vision of reality. Reject the notion that an evil thinker is less restrained, and therefore more creative. The good thinker is not restrained by anything either, but they have additionally a vested interest in valuing multiple goods. It is this greater intellectual burden that requires the good thinker to be more cognitively complex and nuanced in their creativity.

The ends never justify the means. No evil act is ever justified. It is evil, therefore unjust. The service of a great good often coaxes the minds of the powerful into the false perception that the small has no value.

When faced by a difficult decision concerning ends and means, reconsider all possible means. Very often the scripted responses to situations involve the violation of one thing for the sake of another. Look for more ways. There are hidden premises and expectations that direct our thinking. Identify these, and only abide by the ones that exist for the good.

If you cannot see a way toward the good without violating another good: 1.) Admit that is your lack of knowledge, power, and finesse that necessitates this choice… the greatest good is good for all, and 2.) Make a choice. Either refrain from doing the bad, and fail to accomplish the good, or do the bad, accomplishing the good, but do not justify the behavior. A bad act is always bad, no matter what. Do everything in your power to prevent it from happening again, and make reparations.

Evil is not sexy. Do not romanticize defunct moral action. There power in sex, and sex in power, but so too is gentleness and abandon. It may be an exercise in understanding to root for the bad guy, but it should be done irregularly.

Power is not evil. Imagine the power that created the universe. Use great power judiciously to go great good.

Judgment is born of awareness and integrity.

Awareness of the world is a must for moral action. As creatures with power we have the responsibility to learn the extent and impact of that power, striving to muster an awareness just as vast and intense. Do not hide behind ignorance to defend bad acts. While true sinfulness is done when bad acts are done knowingly, perceptual irresponsibility still causes bad things to happen. Those accidents may not be sins exactly, but they are still result of your action and a due to your irresponsibility.

Integrity is doing good when doing bad would have no personal consequence. This makes integrity the key to being good when no one is looking as well as when you have a powerful upper hand. Foster your integrity in small ways, and train your spirit for resisting great temptations.

Be humble. Now, that doesn’t mean you should lie about your talents, or over exaggerate your flaws. Rather, do not consider your gifts yours. Be realistic about where they come from. Admit to the biological, social, and spiritual factors that have contributed to your excellence. Similarly, know to what end your gifts should be in service of. Celebrate all success equally. Be happy about a great gift, no matter who has it.

Be courageous in action. Train your mind to react quickly in dangerous situations so that good can be done with efficiency.

Be courageous in thought. Do not be afraid to face uncomfortable truths. Do not be afraid to accept and defend truths that will face the scorn of others.

Take care of yourself. You are the tool by which you do good. Attend to your health, foster your good moods, and be spiritually well.

Strive to do no wrong. If you do falter, remember the power of healing. Heal the wounds you cause, as well as the ones you don’t.

Honor is a powerful tool. By valuing what you say and who you are, you can give your words powerful inertia and increase the likelihood they will actualize as behavior. Be wary, however, that you do not create phantasmal moral worlds, where things that have no value are treated as sacrosanct and real value is besmirched. Embarrassment is not a violation of honor.

Never loose your dignity, but be realistic about what is dignified. Being broken or small does not sully your humanity.

Use your mind to channel your emotions. Irrational expression and impulsive behavior can wreck great suffering in the world.

Use your heart do channel you thoughts. Heartless thinking and emotionally empty beliefs can wreck great suffering in the world.