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25A011 Culture & Morality by Jim Davies, 3/18/2025
If that title seems a bit heavy, relax. We are all living in one culture or another, it is to us like its lake is to a fish. It permeates pretty well everything. It's what we swim in.
Ours is the Christian culture, which isn't quite the same as the Christian religion but is extensively influenced by it. And the coming zero government society (ZGS) will change it somewhat; so it's well to be prepared. The culture (and the religion underlying it) produces principles of morality, the standards of conduct to which the society adheres. Usually. In theory.
Douglas Murray, in his seminal book "The Strange Death of Europe" shows that the underlying basis of Christianity (the religion and therefore the culture and its morals) has collapsed. Murray dates the start of the collapse to what some call "higher criticism" early in the 19th Century; that scholarly movement, originating in Germany, treated the Bible as any other ancient text and found it seriously deficient. He adds that Darwin's later, reluctant contribution finished the job: basically, it's just not true. The very existence of a God is a fable. What, then, of the moral principles that sprang from its elegant theological superstructure? What of the whole culture, which it saturates? Oops.
The dilemma compares to what Dostoyevsky brought out through his character Ivan, in The Brothers Karamasov, explored in this ZGBlog:
"If God does not exist, then everything is permitted."
That is not true either, it's a non-sequitur. Morality has indeed been built on the assumption that God exists, in our culture, but it didn't have to be - and in the future a better basis for morality is awaiting use, a rational one that rests upon no fable or superstition at all.
It's been observed that since the mid-1800s when the reality of God was called into serious question, the world has suffered more brutal savagery than at any time in human history; with two world wars and several other major ones, and democides that have ended human lives at the rate of over 16 million per decade. All true; but correlation doesn't prove causation, and another very obvious cause (the vast increase in the power of governments, which both wage wars and bring democides about) is ready and awaiting acknowledgement.
Nonetheless, the overall point is valid: as the Christian culture had been eroding, decent society has been disintegrating. Two possible solutions are obvious: (a) restore the Christian culture, or (b) find a system of morality that rests on something firmer.
Russia, interestingly, claims to be trying (a). Maybe it will help, but I doubt it; the methods being used reek of compulsion, and that will not work. Goodness cannot be commanded.
As above, however, a perfectly good basis for decent conduct is waiting. It is our old friend the SoA, the Self Ownership Axiom; and it's rational, not religious. It's the firm foundation not just of freedom, but of morality. There is no rational alternative to the axiom that each of us has the absolute right to own and operate our own lives, and therefore nobody else's. There's the ethical rock.
"First, do no harm" is (or was, until they conformed to the CDC directive not to prescribe Ivermectin for respiratory diseases like Covid) the basic moral principle for physicians. The "Golden Rule" is well known worldwide and says, in one very good version, to "do nothing to others that you would not wish to be done to you." This all blends perfectly with the SoA. It's all that is required.
When that is adopted properly, what of the prevailing culture - the sea, in which we swim? I doubt that it will change a whole lot, nor does it need to. It's nice to have myths in society, for fun and relaxation, and so long as they are known to be just fables or fairy tales, there's little harm done.
Of course, there must be no form of compulsion, to heed or not to heed them. And that does bring us a caveat; some cultures are embedded in government force. Islam, for instance, is tied to it closely in a kind of theocracy, and its commands - some of which are quite acceptable and benevolent - are now, but must not be in future, required by law.
Why? - because morality requires freedom to choose. If (by law) you cannot decide for yourself to do right, your conduct is not "good" or "bad" but merely mechanical. No way is that acceptable as a moral system, compatible with the SoA; so the sooner that culture collapses, the better.
Babylon Bee's satire varies from mildly amusing to very funny. This one's hilarious: Five Troubling Signs That Your Baby Might Be A White Supremacist
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