Monday, October 21, 2019

Ethics;  you've got to believe that out of all conceivable realities possible, THIS is the one that matters!  Whatever it may be, THIS got has got to be the case. If your life were a movie, THIS, whatever it is, it could be the plot, the drama, the central point, of which everything depends to propel itself. Assume that THIS is the one.

THIS could be anything. It could be the silliest thing possible, or the most solemn. It can be real, but it ABSOLUTELY MUST first be imagined in order to ever be real. Whatever it is, even the slightest thing, the one universe out of all the universes, in which THIS is the case....could that be you? Could it be your thoughts? Could it be your life, right now? Could it be something you are still living toward? Could it be here? Could it be the very moment you are in now? Could it be that someone is speaking to you? Anything, anything, anything...could THIS be the one that matters? Could it be that our (that is, you, yes you, [the reader who is this very moment interpreting this very text] and I [the text itself], out of all realities....could it be that this moment itself is...the One?

Could the One be THE narrative that drives us forward? Could it be the story from the perspective of the Hero of the Cosmic Story? Could it be that our reality, whether you could imagine it or not, out of all realities, is the one THAT MATTERS?

Yes, now you're beginning to get it! In the grand set ("set" here being used in the mathematical sense of the word), of conceivable alternate realities, perhaps this moment is the one THAT MATTERS.

Of all that can be conceived in all the Multiverses, we've got to act as if ours is the one upon which everything depends. We've got to act as if there is purpose, as if there is meaning. We've got to act, for example, as if there are transcendental virtues such as Truth, Beauty, and Love. And we've got to believe that, for example, acting in accordance with these virtues, might bring us closer to fulfilling our telos (or if you like in dramatic terms, the resolution, the end of the story). This is thus characterized as a telos driven narrative ethics, one in which we treat the moment as if it is the only moment, out of all moments, that matters. We must treat each moment as if it is the point in the story that is driving the plot forward. In this sense, a moral agent is one who acts if the following axioms were the case; A) not only does the universe have a trajectory and a destination but B) that the destination is the best possible universe, and that our own present moment is the trajectory in motion. To be moral is thus to truthfully work towards making manifest the best of all possible universes. It means to fight for a world in which we can earnestly and passionately make the appraisal of our present universe (with all its relationships therein) as "the best imaginable telos." We've got to be present to each moment, passionately present, such that we become like a viewer of a play.

Some may take the preceding as justification to act in a childishly nihilistic way, to act as moral agents only as we please, abiding by no rule and spinning aimlessly. It is no such justification. We might suddenly get the idea that the show is all about us and that we can behave arbitrarily. We might choose to behave in a manner consistent with whatever manner suits our ever changing dispositions. But if we let the spotlight thus get to our heads....what sort of story will our lives end up writing? Will it be good? Will it be bad? Will it speak truth, or always lie? Will it have love, or will it have hate? We are thus the existential tellers of our own story. We choose in how we act and live how we want the story to be told.

And (note, this is key), to whom is the story told? Our lives are being presented to someone. Our lives are texts, and we each of us is the author. And who is the reader of the text? And what qualities will the relationship between the two have? What are the hermeneutical dynamics of the one relating to the other? In other words, how do we qualify our relationship with the other? Is it I-It or I-Thou? If I-It, it is morally wrong. If I-Thou, it is morally right. How right or good a thing is (at least in part) is reflected in the quality of what we choose to include in the telling of our story, and whether or not what we choose to include reflects the hermeneutical balance of the I-Thou relationship.

Here it is...here we are...the border of the frontier, of the unknown, of the Great Other. Lovecraft would be terrified...

Could it be that the one to whom our lives are being presented is the Thou....is.....God?

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