Cell Phone tower on Victoria Street. by Greg McCann
We all have our good and bad qualities
Private and public selves
People want to be seen as desirable
Often this means being seen as good
This leads to moral signals
Moral signals generate a moral system
A moral system contains moral currency, or movement between signals in the form of favor or disfavor
Too much emphasis on currency has a corroding effect on any system
This can lead to traumas and the ensuing moral panics that follow, amplifying and therefore polarizing signals to the level of distortion
It has been said that evil often comes disguised as good, and this is true. Recent history can bear testimony to this in many ways
An error occurs in assuming that this is always the case (an error of emotional polarization)
This results in a deeply cynical and dualistic view of things like charity
The assumption being that any charitable act is being done as means of compensation for an immoral act
Under these circumstances, the awareness of this assumption takes on a volume and frequency in people’s minds, to the point where even one’s own motivations for doing a private charitable act, succumb to self doubt
Its important to remember another motivation to do good: because someone was good to you
This is a different form of moral currency, relying far less on signals and more on the heart of the individual
To be an individual is to be not divided in two
I can’t tell you whether anyone’s ever been good to you
The need for compensation is essential to human conciousness, due to the mind seeking equilibrium
The mind's need for equilibrium is something that mass media exploits
This is one of the meanings of covering one eye, to induce anticipation and the need to complete a circuit
It’s a signal which implies that something is owed, and since the subject is looking at the viewer, on some level the viewer is intended to become the object of a debt, within their own mind
This is also the basis of the economic system, that in order for value to be increased something must be owed and someone must pay
It is the projection & reversal of obligation based in dualism, requiring endless repetition going nowhere, with nothing being paid forward, only backwards
In this way currency is based on what people want, or lack
To see things in terms of lack is a negative sum perception that leads to desire
To desire something means to give up a type of agency in exchange for it, or to “not sire”
Evil does not always disguise itself as good, but it does always present itself as desirable
If enough people desire good, evil will disguise itself as good
If enough people desire evil, then evil will reveal itself
This is the true lesson of the last few years
The financial/moral system has relied too heavily on signal based currency and gotten away from heart based value
A common form of this currency is clout
Clout is completely artificial, based on whatever gets you status, and in a moral system it is a sign of deep corruption
What does it mean to desire good?
To “not sire”, or give up a type of agency (clout), due to perceiving a lack of morality in one’s environment
Paying it forward doesn’t require anything back, it just adds value
Doing this, however, can put a strain on the heart
The heart does need currencies to refuel, and paying good deeds forward defers this need for developing a different frequency that generates different currencies
Volume and frequency in the aggregate effects the viability of this type of moral system
Its a high risk/reward strategy in relation to the heart, in exchange for a more sustainable system in the long run
Putting the heart at risk is the ultimate vulnerability at a time when evil disguises itself as good
This is because the heart is open to deception when it is vulnerable
Or at least, the heart that you know
