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Wednesday, December 18th, 2002In followup to Donivan Bessinger’s series on finding a modern ethic for Humanity, I repost these three essays on synergic morality.
The Scientific Basis for The Golden Rule
Timothy Wilken, MD
Edward Haskell, a pioneer of synergic science, explained:
“The first formulation of the MORAL LAW for a non-human “kingdom” of Universe was Dimitri Mendeleev’s discovery of the Periodic Law in 1869. “The properties of the chemical elements are functions of their atomic weights.”
“What Mendeleev’s discovery states for Atoms is that “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” where “reaping” is the properties of the chemical elements and “sowing” is the co-Action between the atom’s two components its vast, light, electron cloud, and its tiny, massive nucleus.”
Haskell’s analysis of the Atomic elements showed that these two components the electron cloud and the massive nucleus related in only three ways positive, neutral, or negative. Haskell called this the Moral Law of Unified Science.
For humans, the earliest formulation of the Moral Law of Unified Science appeared 3500 years ago as the doctrine of karma.
“Hinduism began in India about 1500 BC. The belief in rebirth, or samsara, as a potentially endless series of worldly existences in which every being is caught up was associated with the doctrine of karma (Sanskrit: karman; literally “act,” or “deed”). According to the doctrine of karma, good conduct brings a pleasant and happy result and creates a tendency toward similar good acts, while bad conduct brings an evil result and creates a tendency toward repeated evil actions. This furnishes the basic context for the moral life of the individual.”The doctrine of karma was accepted by Buddha ~500 BC and is incorporated in modern Buddhism today. It appeared in western thought ~300 BC, in the Old Testament of the Bible as the phrase:
“As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
Two thousand years ago Jesus of Nazareth stated this law this way:
“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.“Recall Universe is now understood to be process. Reality is a happening. Many things are going on all at once. Living systems the plants, animals, and we humans all live within the EVENT paradigm. Buckminster Fuller defined an event to be a triad of related phenomena action, reaction, resultant.
The dynamics of all behavior can be understood using these three concepts. Fuller discovered for every action there is a reaction, and a precessional resultant.
I can decide on an action. I can then implement my action. The environment including all life forms react to my action, the vector sum of the two (my action and the world’s reaction) produce a resultant. I act, the rest of the world reacts, and when it all settles down the change made by the interaction of the action and reaction is the resultant.
Now reformulating Haskell’s The Moral Law of Unified Science to include Fuller’s Principle of Action-Reaction-Resultant, we get:
Adversary action tends to provoke adversary reaction ending in an adversary resultant.
Neutral action tends to provoke neutral reaction ending in a neutral resultant.
And synergic action tends to provoke synergic reaction ending in a synergic resultant.
“As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”We humans have three choices. We can sow adversary actions and reap adversary resultants. We can sow neutral actions and reap neutral resultants. Or we can sow synergic actions and reap synergic resultants.
Jesus of Nazareth’s The Golden Rule
Timothy Wilken, MD
The first formulation of the synergic corollary of the Moral Law of Unified Science was:
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
This formulation is credited to Jesus of Nazareth who intuitively discovered the synergic way 2000 years ago. He gave us the rules for synergic relationship in his sermon on the mount.
”You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Ö Go be reconciled with thy brother.”But, can we modern humans do this? Can North American whites love the South American browns? Can the Jews love the Arabs? Can the Northern Irish love the English? Can the Bosnians love the Serbs? Can the South African whites love the South African blacks?
Are we humans better able to love today? Have we learned enough in 2000 years—“To reconcile with our brother”?
Jesus of Nazareth may have been the first human to embrace synergy. His words seem to capture the very essence of synergic morality. Synergic morality is more than not hurting other, it requires helping other. Jesus was the first human to state the fundamental law of synergic relationship. It is known as the Golden Rule:
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law.”
What would you have others do to you? The best one word answer I can find for this question is help. “Help others as you would have them help you.” Synergic morality is Helping.
Andrew J. Galambos, in his lectures describing Moral Capitalism, often quoted the negative version of the Golden Rule:
“Do not do to others what you would have them not do to you.”
What would you have others not do to you?
Here the best one word answer is hurt. “Do not hurt others as you would have them not hurt you.”
The negative version of the Golden Rule is true and correct as far as it goes. In fact, it is the underlying premise for the Neutral Morality found in the western world today. But, Synergic Morality requires more of us than simply not hurting. It requires more of us than simply ignoring others. It requires us to help others to help each other.
Jesus of Nazareth understood this on the deepest of levels. He called for more than a prohibition against hurting others. He asked all humans to help each other.
Synergic Morality is more than the absence of hurting. It is the presence of helping. Synergic Morality rests then on the premise that when you help others, you will find yourself helped in return.
Whether you believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ foretold in the Old Testament, or just a man, his words bring wisdom to all of humanity.
As Reason Wilken writes in her review of the Web of Life by Fritjof Capra: ”All of the parts of the earth once considered to be inanimate — rocks, soil, atmospheric gases — have a demonstrated roles to the contrary. The planet on which we live — which we had assumed to be a mere caterer to the wants and needs of humanity — is in fact a life force. This necessitates policies that are based on this reality that incorporate ecological principles into the rules of life. One of the most important principles is the interdependence of living systems.
“Life is based on a horizontal network of relationships and cycles, while the current structure of humanity is mostly linear. Humanity does not recycle most of the things we depend on for modern life: oil, minerals, land. We burn the oil, mine the minerals and populate the land without giving appropriate thought to the consequences.”
A Synergic Future requires Protecting the Life Force
Timothy Wilken, MD
In a synergic culture wealth is defined as that which supports life for both self and other. It is mutual life support. Synergic wealth by definition excludes adversary wealth – physical force that hurts other human beings, and neutral wealth – money that ignores other human beings.
Synergic humans recognize that interdependence is the human condition. They recognize that all humans need help unless they wish to live at the level of animal subsistence. They choose to help others and trust that others will choose to help them.
Life forms the basis then for all synergic values. All forms of life are animated by the life force. The life force is not well understood, but it seeks to survive and to extend itself into universe. The life force is known to be three and one half billion years old on this planet. It is like a special flame, sort of a living fire, we pass it to our children in the act of reproduction. But, we do not know how to rekindle the flame should it go out. The life force itself is the very basis of living action.
(Life Force) x (Time) = Living Action.
No life force. No living action. Therefore, the the sanctity of life itself must be the highest synergic value. Therefore, Synergic Wealth is defined as life itself and that which promotes human well being generally—that which satisfies the human needs of self and other—that which promotes mutual survival and makes life meaningful for self and other. Now recalling that an event is made up of three parts—action, reaction, and resultant. We are ready to further define our synergic value system.
IMPORTANCE—def—> The amount of synergic Wealth (mutual life support) effected by an event compared to the total amount of synergic Wealth.
Synergic WEALTH (effected)
Synergic WEALTH (total)RISK—def—> What is the amount of Synergic Wealth that could be lost during an event—action, reaction & resultant.
OPPORTUNITY—def—> What is the amount of Synergic Wealth that could be gained during an event—action, reaction & resultant.
ALLOWED ACTION—def—> Any action is allowed which does not injure or hurt another human individual.
SYNERGIC ACTION—def—> Any allowed action which helps others.
DYMAXION ACTION—def—> The least action that triggers an event that produces the greatest gain in Synergic Wealth.
Read more by Dr. Wilken: 1) Understanding Wealth, 2) A Synergic Future, 3) Understanding Order (PDF) , 4) Dual World , 5) The Unified Stress Concept , 6) Protecting Humanity , 7) Beyond War ,
Crisis: Danger & Opportunity