Edit: The typeface, font, and size just about everything else about the formatting of this essay has been harangued, harassed, and otherwise horribly heterogenized in the middle bit by Blogspot (thank you overlord at Google, Alphabet Inc.) So if this is hard to read, go blame someone who codes and stuff. I'm a writer guy and I wanna write my words - technology be damned. Anyway, as always I suppose. Good luck buddy
I didn't know how to start this post, so the first paragraph just kind of happens to you. I apologize.
Alright, so, I've been on TikTok. Sue me Grandpa, I know how much you hate it and think that it's a Chinese spying App thats sending information to the Authoritarian (Not Communist, Marx would be rolling in his grave about that) CCP so they can brainwash me and something something… economic control of the world, fossil fuels, lets just smoke weed… have you seen my solar panels... blah blah... Whatever dude you're on Facebook go fuck yourself. (Love you Grandpa) And on this wonderful Chinese App, I have been watching videos on Ethics.
Ethics, for those unaware of the jargon, is the philosophy of ‘what is right,’ or ‘how to live correctly,’ or put most potently in this tiktok, ‘how to live a good life.’ That is, what Ethics is the study of the ways in which we should act in order to find the most happiness, be good citizens, good friends, yadda yadda. What you’re allowed to do in any given scenario. If you want a damn definition out of my own mess of a brain, here ya go. Mirriamme Webster, for yall who think they're an authority on anything, says, “Ethics - the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.” Lots of ways of saying, Ethics: Am I doing this right? Can I do it better? How?
I can't claim to be an expert on ethics by any means. I am a History and Political Science Secondary Education Major at Boise State for god’s sake. But, that particular education at said institution has granted me a grand total of One class on Ethics, so I can't say they never did nothing for me. While it was a ‘Business Ethics’ class, and therefore primarily concerned with the studies of Ethics in terms of ‘how can we justify the horrible moral dilemmas that capitalism constantly throws at the capital owning class and still feel good about ourselves while we pursue a business degree?’ (Boise State has a great Business Department) the course did allow me to flex the Ethical muscles I had gained from watching NBC’s ‘The Good Place’ five times all the way through. And in this silly little blogpost that I am using to work out my writing muscles so I might one day have a spot in the Boise State Special Collections and Archives, I will once again be a huge weirdo about my view on Ethics.
If you’ve read my previous post you'll know I am a pretty subjective fella. My dad beat it into me at a young age, and somehow created a monster of a child (still talking about me don’t worry) who still thought that the world had to be one way. Maybe it’s just the way my child brain was developing and you can’t really comprehend what it means to truly live a subjective experience until your early twenties, but man you’d be hard pressed to find a kid who wanted the world to be ONE way for Everyone. I’ve spoken about it before, and you really should go back and read that older post if you haven’t, but I was all about Moral Absolutism, Objectivism, and Deontology when I was a kid.
What changed? Still don’t really know. If I really have to boil down my descent into Moral Particularism, and then Moral Relativism, and finally my own silly brand of Absolute Moral Perspectivism (name pending, but I guess homage to Nitche?) I think it was the years 2019, 2021, and 2023. “Hey Will, weren't these all the years that you got broken up with?” SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET ME TALK. It’s not just about that. Fuck me I find myself saying that a lot… Okay, no listen, I really don't want to get into the particulars about the bullshit of those years, and to be honest there's enough there to write a whole ass other blog post if not a whole fucking book. But suffice to say, enough shit went down in those three years that the worldview I had built up as a child, and even the idea that there could be one objective set of truths about anything, and the possibility of concrete rules to determine how to act in any given scenario, died in a fire.
I guess my own ethical philosophy kind of boils down to ‘ethics is dumb,’ but if I can write a blog post about it I will. Here’s my disclaimer, all of my philosophies, especially including this one, are not Prescriptive, but Descriptive. What I’m saying is: you really don't have to listen to me. Infact, please don’t. If my philosophies sound unhinged, or dangerous to be spreading around and suggesting to people, then by all means stop reading. I’m not expecting you to think that, but I’m just covering my bases. At the end of the day all I’m trying to do here is explain my worldview as it is now in my mid-twenties.
Okay, that's over. Here’s my brief description of Absolute Moral Perspectivism: There is no one right way to do anything. There is no ‘good life’. No matter how you act, do, be, or practice you will be miserable or bad from another perspective - whether that perspective be from within yourself, or from somebody who observes you. So, there’s nothing to do other than try to make the best of what you can from your perspective, acting on what is right in the moment based on the particular situation you are in. Mouthful, here's a smaller one: No matter what you do, or how hard you try, there will always be something that’s on fire. It might be on fire from your perspective, or from someone else’s. All you can do is do your best based on what you know.
Not only that, but a more terrifying implication: there will never be a time in your life where you truly feel 'at peace.' Now, that's not to say that you will never find blissful moments, you absolutely will. There will be moments of bliss, and ecstasy, and complete love and relaxation blah blah blah. I'm not saying those moments won't happen, but there will never be a time in your life where you will be able to have that peace at all times. They will only, as with all emotions, be moments. There will never be a time when everything is good. Something will always be messed up, or not quite right, or out of place. Maybe there will be a moment where it's all good, but no matter what we do, something will fall apart. It's the nature of the universe, second law of thermodynamics, entropy: all things seek a state of total disorder.
That could be scary, yeah. But also see this: even in a world where all things seem to be falling apart, at least something will be good. Just as it is when all things are good and destined to fall apart, it seems that the inverse is also true. Or perhaps it's all our own perceptions, what we choose to look at becomes the reality of the situation. If the good is loud enough to be seen, things are good. If the bad is too big to ignore, things are bad. It is a choice at a certain level, but sometimes the choice is really hard or unclear. I've found its best to try to look at things that are just working, and accepting all the stuff for how it is in the moment. Cause it's pretty fun to consider oneself lucky to be around every little thing just because I can be.
This also means that everyone's perspectives on what they see is just as true as your perspective on what you have seen. If someone is looking at their good and they say that the world is good, then they are right. Same with someone looking at the bad, or the tough, or the mean. The world reflects what we see, and the truth of the world is reflective of that same perception. Just because somebody has a different truth about the world doesn't mean they're wrong, it just means they live in a different world from you. Which, news flash, we all do, at all times. We live under the assumptions and agreements we have made with our self about how the world should operate, and that is our truth. These things differ from person to person, and each world, each assumptions and agreements the individual has made with themselves to help them survive has created an equally valid and true reality. These realities are individual, but also exist as collective constructs that are shared within and between communities.
So, I could go into a very strict breakdown of what I mean by this, but honestly that would take so much time and you guys I’m so busy. I’m keepin it brief for all our sakes. So, my shit might seem like anti-ethics. And in a way I guess you wouldn't be wrong. If the entire field of Ethics is saying: ‘You can find a set of rules that can be lived by in order to make the most amount of happiness for everyone’. Then I’m saying, ‘No you can’t, your dumb, you stink, fuck you.’ I’m sorry Ethical Philosophers I don’t really mean that. I know from my worldview that I’m a good person who tries to do good things, so therefore me saying that is nor morally wrong, plus with the knowledge that this is a satirical essay dropped onto some blog on the edge of the internet hyperbole for rhetorical emphasis is definitely not morally reprehensible in any way.
I guess kinda what I’m saying is: You do anything you want, and justify it with any set of moral principles. You can argue them really well, and they will be true. Those moral principles, those Ethics, will be just as true and valid from your perspective as they will be wrong and reprehensible from another’s perspective. And in the same vein, the morals and ethical frameworks of the perceiver are just as true and good as the person they are perceiving. Ethics are just as personal as Emotions, and, just like all fields of study that attempt to find one way about things and ignore the impact of perspective, emotions, and subjective reality, will always fall apart in the real world.
And that is just how it is, baby. As long as you’re acting with Radical Empathy, that is Understanding that every other human being’s perspective is equally as valid as yours and treat them as such, then we’ll all be good. I honestly think it's this whole idea of ‘Gotta find one right way of doing things that’s the same for everyone and then we will all be happy’, has been the thing that’s gotten us into all this shit in the first place. So, let's all just be a bit more kind maybe?
I guess in essence it's this: Stop searching for the 'Good Life' and accept that any life you create can be as good or as bad as you let yourself see it. Stop trying to pigeonhole yourself into a course of action or framework of theory, it will always fall apart in the particulars. Accept yourself for who you are, create goodness wherever you go, accept that other's people's worlds and truths are just as valid as yours, and don't be a fucking asshole. There, that's my Ethical Philosophy, put that in your pipe and smoke it Aristotle.
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