Do We Choose the Power to Do Right, or the Power to Do Wrong?
Bad things can happen. Not everything comes from human actions to produce something wrong into the world, but a lot of things do come from human actions. Evil things are not an accident. The evils in our world would not exist if human consciousness did not create them into existence. If there is evil somewhere, it's because someone created it.
Engaging in behavior or actions that create wrong or harm for others can be done either consciously, willfully and voluntarily with intent, or it can be done unconsciously and involuntarily through ignorance. We grow up and get conditioned by the environmental factors of our society, family and friends that influence and affect how we think and behave. The outcome that we produce -- with knowledge or ignorance -- is what matters most. How or why the end result was created into the world still matters, but it isn't an excuse to justify what was done.
Since individual or groups of people are the ones creating evil or immorality towards others, we as a species are the ones creating our own aggregate suffering throughout the world. That doesn't mean other people are not responsible for their specific actions that harm and create suffering for us. I am speaking of the conditions of life on the planet and how it got here by our own actions and behaviors. We collectively and individually judge, a friend and insult ourselves by our own actions. We as a species are doing this all to ourselves.
In specific geographic locations, people are all participating or supporting a certain way of life and behaviors that create many negative outcomes, either for themselves and/or for others in different geographic locations. Our aggregated fear, apathy, ignorance and cowardice has us supporting and participating in authoritarian and even tyrannical rule of our lives.
Dominators and controllers run amok while we tacitly accept the appearance and illusion of "good" they project. We believe our freedom requires or "needs" rulers and masters over our lives, but that is because were not spending time to think better and deeper, to reflect, contemplate and analyze our lives in greater depth and clarity.
Once our inner vision is opened, we can see that we are the ones creating our own suffering overall on the planet. We are like ignorant little children who don't understand or don't seem to care about the consequences to our flawed and foolish actions.
We have great power, value, potential and responsibility with our power of consciousness to alter, affect and change the world around us.
The negative -- the corruption, wrong, evil and immorality -- is there because we manifested these external actions from our underdeveloped consciousness, psyche or mind. Instead of having self-knowledge of various kinds so that we understand how and why we are doing what we are doing, and changing it, we have incorrect, wrong, false and foolish principles that drive and motivate our behavior to allow the continuation of all the negative constructs.
All of the negative, immorality, wrong, corruption and evil needs to be paid attention to. We can realize the real lies with real eyes and see the mistakes we make. The chaos of the negative is there to teach us so that we can learn from our mistakes. That is, if we have the care, courage and willpower to do so, instead of the fear, apathy and cowardice.
Knowledge of the negative we create will empower us to act to correct our false and foolish ways. So long as we remain ignorant of the negative we create, we won't be empowered to stop doing it. Those who don't comprehend they are doing something wrong are not likely to stop doing that wrong because they think it's "right".
This applies whether we are doing it wrong to an individual, a group or even to ourselves. There are many toxins, chemicals, poisons and pollutants that we dump into the land, water and air. We breathe, drink and eat our way to diminishing health. We are continuously consuming the limited resources on the only land we have as we hurl through space. The ignorance of what we're doing by focusing on short-term gains instead of an analysis to understand the factors that can produce long-term consequences, will likely be our own undoing.
What we put out is what we get back. If were putting out foolish actions that ignore the consequences that will inevitably come about in the long term, we only hurt ourselves and create suffering for ourselves. We reap what we sow ("karma"). It's all action and reaction, cause-and-effect, which is a natural law that pervades all of existence.
We continue to let ourselves be manipulated, deceived, controlled and dominated because we fear the truth of what we have let happen, and we fear the power and responsibility to change and lead our own lives. Many prefer the alleged security and safety provided to them by the authoritarian controllers of our lives, rather than learning of the inherent problems in the belief of external authority and imagining a truly better way to live our lives.
Source: unknown
The longer we take to deny the reality of the human world we have co-created together, the more we will continue to generate wrong-actions and chaos. Suffering will continue to be perpetuated by our own doing because we don't care enough to correct the situation. We must give ourselves the opportunity to face reality with honest eyes and accept the current condition we have created for ourselves. That knowledge of the true condition will allow us to change it for the better. Once we see the problems, we can identify the root cause to understand why they are manifested. The why shows us the nature of what created the problem so that we can be in a position to affect positive lasting change.
Change is hard to create because there are many false constructs and principles that have taken root in our consciousness or that of others. We have become attached to these illusions and have use them as a foundational basis for how we see the world, how we see ourselves and how we develop our ego-personality-identity construct. If we don't let go of the falsity that drives and motivates our behavior, we aren't truly fixing the root cause in our own consciousness, but simply trying to Band-Aid and patch up the symptoms and problems that arise from never addressing and correcting the root cause.
Each and every one of us is a powerful being with almost infinite potential to change our way of life. We need to accept the personal responsibility that comes with the power to create good or evil. It's all up to each one of us whether we allow the negatives in our current condition to persist, or if we gain the knowledge to empower us and envision change towards the better.
Facing ourselves in the mirror, seeing the darkness within, and being honest with the consequences that our choices and actions produce, is required. Denial can be comforting because it allows us to maintain our attachment to the current condition and think everything is okay, but it isn't okay, and denial isn't the truth. A care for truth above all else will erode our desire to remain in denial, ignorant and rejecting of hard truths we don't want to acknowledge.
When we see the truth of the wrongs we do, we can choose to abdicate from that participation. This applies in the direct actions we take in our individual lives, but also in the abdication of personal responsibility where we tacitly support the actions of authorities.
The greatest act of good we can do is not a positive active creation of good like giving to charity, but the cessation and abdication of our participation or support in the negative active creation of evil like not going to war. To no longer create a wrong-action into existence does more good. No matter how many right/good things we do, if we continue to allow the wrong/evil then we won't be getting very far, as it's one step forward and two steps back. First we need to stop doing what's wrong so that we can actualize more of what's right.
Learning and then living by foundational principles of truth, justice, right, good and morality is what will eventually lead us to the potential to actualize and realize true freedom and peace.
Fantastic post my friend!
We are all caught in the headlights of authority and have given up our personal responsibilities to outside agencies. We have no understanding of truth but that which we are given by those we have allowed to become our moral compass.
Whether it be in the education of our children or the morality of our society, we have given up our own critical thinking for the opinions of state sponsored 'experts' and have long since lost any understanding of right or wrong at a personal level.
The dynamic that we have learned through our interaction with the propagandised society we live in also exists here to some degree. We look to those who have been here longest and have the highest rep as if it means that their opinion or insight is more meaningful than those who may have just joined the platform. It is not a direct indicator of quality or substance yet we subconsciously see it as so.
We need to get away from this type of thinking and learn that value lies in the ideas that are being shared as opposed to who is sharing them and that we also have the ability of sharing valuable ideas if we just open up our minds to ourselves!
Great post! Hope your day is going well!
Indeed, well said, thank you for a great comment :)
Rep doesn't mean much indeed. Look at the #1 rep on the platform, steemsports, they are just a gambling account, that enticed people through gambling-mentality to engage in a free lottery of -risk-free entry at no cost and all gain. Such a scam people supported for so long, gambling where you don't even put up anything, you don't lose, it's all win even if you lose and you lose nothing. It went on for months. Now they still operate but in real gambling terms of making people put up something first. They still post and get the community reward pool from voters on steemit to generate revenue for their shit. Imagine that, a community fund being used to finance gambling. lol, and other people still do it! Talking about these issues isn't popular and just makes one a target because most people don't get it and just like the money which is a higher priority than actually assessing if the action is right to engage in.
Thank you @krnel.
I've heard about steemsports and of course that is not a good thing at all but who can blame people for being greedy in a world that rewards greed? :)
I wonder how our attitudes towards certain things would change if we found out tomorrow that God is in fact real or God is most definitely not real. Would those of us who are selfish and greedy change our ways if we found out there is a God or would those of us who believe there to be a God now change our ways when they find out that there is no reward for being good other than the satisfaction it gives you in that moment?
Both but not necessarily everyone. Some people respond to fear of God and do the behavior because they fear. Not wanting to doing wrong is something we all deep down have, but we justify it at times and the more we do that and accept our justification without admitting it is wrong, then we are more inclined to keep doing that. I guess it's a snowball effect. No one wants to do wrong for themselves, and we should recognize not wanting to do wrong for others either. Thanks for the feedback.
I agree completely but our justification in doing what we know to be wrong or immoral in my opinion comes from the propagandized media and other sources who deliberately mislead and confuse. There are many things now which are socially acceptable that weren't a few years ago and a few things now which aren't socially acceptable but may well be soon.:(
Enjoy your day @krnel. Thanks again.
But, is the power of consciousness really a "power"?
As I see consciousness there is no power in it.
Just consciousness :-)
I've been thinking about the two stage free will of WIlliam James, Karl Popper and Martin Heisenberg. More to the point, I am thinking of free will as the ability to say "No" to our instincts. I see 99.999% of our behavior as deterministic, either directly generated by our instincts or perversions of them, or indirectly generated by the history of our instincts and the instincts of others, along with physical random chance.
But when we choose to say "No, I will not have sex with that person, no, I will not eat those berries", we are clearly going against our instincts.
Now we come to perversions of instincts. "No, I will not gather all the berries for myself" is easily translated into, "No, I will not build a multinational corporation that ravages third world countries while providing me with unused riches and plenty of slave girls." Same instinct, same brain activity, transliterated upon our modern world.
Heisenberg (son of Werner Heisenberg) is working on proving that indeterministic quantum behavior is responsible for those acts of free will. If that turns out to actually demonstrate that we are free, then we really do have responsibility for our actions.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Good topics. Our unconscious motivations an drives are indeed a large part of behavior, and the power to rise above that automatic modality of living gives us greater degrees of freedom.
This is how I have understood the layers of reality where we live and exist, and the "unreality" non-existence of the quantum realm where we don't exist or live. They are two different realms. One is a building block that leads to the culmination of the other.
We are responsible for our actions, free will chosen voluntarily or involuntarily unconsciously driven to do. We have the capacity for free will. The is evidence in life, regardless of what quantum physics can add or attempt to deny.
We can the drivers if we want to be. All the quantum state changes are a reflections of what happens here, either deterministically or with free will. The deterministic causal course of events without free will agents is one part, and the quantum to atom to molecules builds that according to laws and forces. The randomized free will choices work int he opposite direction from consciousness to act and change the world which is then reflected into the quantum state change. The quantum state change does not happen "first" to determine what our free will choice will be.
Great points. I do think that there are people who think of their actions but that their own self-interest, in the end, wins over long-term survival. A lot of people focus on the now and perhaps the immediate future. But that's it. Only up to their immediate future so eh who cares if 10 generations from now the apocalypse happens, I won't be alive then. It's the type of mindset a lot of people adopt nowadays. What's that thing they say? YOLO or you only live once. "Drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." It's sad that a lot of us have grown callous to many issues like war and global warming. Could be the culture we're growing up in or even the fast-paced lifestyle now. In any case, there's a lot to be considered. Awesome post. It's though-provoking.
Yeah, not my problem right now, let the future generations, my children more their children, deal with it. Not us though... lol. We just want to keep what we have, we don't want to lose all that we have as part of our standard of living. The feel-good pleasure trap, live and forget about the bigger issues, be happy, party, etc. are all low consciousness mindsets. Thanks for the feedback.
"We just want to keep what we have, we don't want to lose all that we have as part of our standard of living." - This! Exactly this. I live in a country where the oligarchs are making bigger efforts as of late to make sure the poor stay poor because they don't want to cut down on their lifestyle. It's crappy but I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Unless the powerful allows/instigates the change, I doubt there will be any notable change at all to any big/worldwide issue.
Thanks for the link. I'm going to go check it out, too.
What country do you live in?
Even in the Western nations, think of how we make ourselves dependent on energy. We have made a way of living that we don't want to let go. If there were no more oil energy, people would be forced to change their way of life. Just a thought I had on it too. Thanks for the feedback.
So I read your linked article and I'm apologizing ahead of time for my comment. TLDR-type without me realizing until I hit enter and saw it. Sorry!
Moving on, I live in the Philippines. I don't even want to start dissecting the mindset of the ruling class because then it's another TLDR-type comment I'd be flooding you with. It pisses me off. Even in small-scale places (I'm in a relatively rural area), the ones who have the power to do things right choose not to. Case to point, we've had no running water for almost a week but the mayor and her underlings aren't doing anything about it despite complaints because they're not affected. And to think they're overcharging us! Like putting extra fees/cut and charging exorbitant rates to begin with. They just don't care. It would be an extra effort for them to look into the matter so it's a yeah let your constituents find a way around that kind of situation. It's little things like that that build up. I can't imagine how harder it is in other places.
Damn that sucks. It's all lower consciousness personal lives and comfort focus, not about doing what's right. They care about the money, not the people. People need to stand up against that shit. Thanks for the feedback.
Unfortunately, the ones that should read and react to this type of information are in that denial you are talking about. I was thinking that the only way things can be radically improved is through education. Public education could be the most handy tool but it's not used to help children think and get responsible for their actions but to create obedient future workers.
Where do you see the starting point of this change? (with each of us would be the perfect answer but we all now that thinking of the future impact and the harm done on others is not the biggest human attribute at this point)
Yeah, morality... philosophy... psychology... don't see that being taught lol. The start is each individual evolving consciousness and uniting with those on the same goal and at the same level of moral alignment. Those who accept the immorality of rape won't be uniting with those who deny it being immoral. And on and on it goes. Morality is was determines the unity and formation of a community. Big groups go towards central leaders and authority because people's voices can't be heard to a central point around which everyone rotates forms. Thinking for ourselves goes out the window, as it's one or a group of people that does the thinking for us lol.
What I've noticed around me is that people doing good are less likely to unite as each of them have a different perspective on what good or moral is. And no leader is good enough as they search for perfection
No leader is good enough, people need to lead themselves. The moral or good point to align on has to do with the actions we do that harm others. People who don't accept rape won't unite with those that do, nor will those who don't accept theft unite with those that do. If someone recognizes nonhumans as having their own lives that merit being free from our dominance and oppression of them, while others don't and continue to perpetuate enslavement and murder of innocent beings who did them no harm, then they can't logically unite to live together either. Some people want to be better, while others want to deny the wrong they do, so they walk different paths in life. We can communicate to influence change in others. We can unite with those on the same path and moral commitment, or those who seek to improve their moral commitment because they understand why something is better.
No perfection, only the striving to perfection, towards what can be better. Being and becoming. Here is an inforgraphic that relates some of this process.
There is the truth of where we are now, and the truer potential of where we can be by becoming it:
I see your point here and I think it can work perfectly in theory and in small communities. I'm still thinking how can this be implemented on a global level. Thank you for the answer, a lot of work from your side to put all the ideas together. It this raised questions in the mind of at least 1 person it would be great. You are doing an amazing job raising awareness on such important subjects.
It easier smaller indeed. Imagine though, thousands of smaller groups that interconnect. They could be in different locations, but they would have a psychological connection that could increase and influence the rest of people to change their ways as well. Uniting in common foundations of morality to change the way things are. Abolitionists had to unite against slavery, because most people were in favor of that way of life and were against abolition at first.
Great article! You're so right about us controlling our own destiny and everything is created from our own doing. People tend to get complacent in their routine and get uncomfortable whenever they have to change it. They follow the herd because that's what's "cool" in society. The sooner people realize they have the power to do anything, and make their own life, the sooner we'll start to see the positive change in the world :)
Yeah, do anything as long as it's not a wrong-doing and doesn't harm another innocent. Thanks for the feedback.
The inability to understand and predict causality is what separates juveniles from adults.
Thus the attempt to protect people from the consequences of their choices fates them to remain perpetually juvenile. Blocking the learning pathway can never lead to enlightenment.
Indeed, well said. Thanks for the feedback. If one can't comprehend how their behavior creates harm for another being that feels, then they're pretty unevolved in consciousness, a child ego-centric lacking the development of including others into a valuation of their lives.
Btw, I looked at your posts, your're buddy kyriacos has no real comprehension of morality. He attacks what he doesn't understand, as he has harassed and trolled me on my posts when I first got here. This was after I tried to explain to him how morality is an objective categorization of behavior and the harm it creates for others, while he believes morality is subjective based on the whims of people in various geographic locations. I could find you the proof if you want. He's also emotional stunted and rejects empathy and love (having made posts on it). I have tried to correct him on some issues when I first got here last year, which is why I think he took a personal dislike to me and started to harass me, call me bullshit, that I'm on meds, need professional help, when all those were projections from his own self-deluded state of ignorance and rejection of even learning about things he didn't understand. He doesn't like being shown he's wrong. Anyways, be aware, he's not a "good" guy. A left-brain pseudo-intellectual who has cut off his emotional side and can't make his way into proper moral understanding behavior with others. Hence why he trolls and harasses people, and enjoys it. He's a bully. Seriously, a guy who can't understand empathy and love, and morality, thinks he can accurately speak on moral issues? That's hilariously preposterous.
Sometimes the anonymity of the internet brings out the worst in us. Despite its ability to connect people it can also separate us. Thanks for the reply and the heads up!
I think more evil comes from the conscious than the unconscious. People doing wrong knowing it but not caring what the consequences are for others as long as it produces some perceived good for the evildoer!
Yeah, many do indeed know and still do it just because they get something out of it. The personal subjective "good" isn't hat is really objectively good hehe.
I know you're no big fan of the Bible... but it talks of a time when evil becomes good and vice versa. When good becomes a subjective principle, it's not a principle at all. Being human, seem to possess an infinite ability to rationalize anything (knowing all along what "Good" and "Evil" really are)
The Bible has good information in it. One needs to be discerning to not just accept it all. Yeah I've written about a reversal before as well, the illusion of "good" that evil hides behind. We can do anything and justify it because we want to save our asses from the negative consequences that a cause-effect reciprocity would entail lol. Thanks for the feedback.
Prefer saying right and wrong rather than evil or good as its mostly brings to my mind some religious context.
Religions use other words too, does that mean those words are religious? :P The categorization of behavior into relative degrees of good and evil is something we do to judge the actions of others and ourselves. Good/right/true/moral are the same thing in this context, so too are evil/wrong/false/immoral. Thanks for the feedback.
I get what you are saying maybe im narrow-minded. Cheers
Hehe, it's that we're all too influenced by those things we don't like and associate many things as coming from those things we don't like. Maybe it's religion, maybe it's government, or someone we don't like. If someone we don't like suggests something, we tend to look at that suggestion unfavorably. Thinking of good and evil as coming from religion when we dislike religion has us dislike those terms as well, as "religious" terms. ;)
Yep, use what words you feel are most appropriate. I have to control my bias :)
People do the things they do because of the way they feel and they feel the way they feel because of the things they do. Great post thanks for sharing!
Nice post