Form: Argument

ARE MEN NOT MORAL?

—“If men are not moral, why do they have any conception of good, let alone try to achieve it?”—Keith Smith

Men are merely rational. We are capable of moral (cooperative) and immoral (parasitic), and evil (predatory) behaviors. We demonstrate that we are capable of moral, immoral, and evil behaviors.

We choose good most often because it is rational. A few of us choose not good because it is rational – fairly often. A few of us choose evil, because it is rational given their emotional condition. We always manage our physical, emotional, and intellectual(frustration) budgets, and we

We educate our young and each other in order to preserve the utility of cooperation for them, for ourselves, and the group, and to prevent retaliation for them, ourselves, and the group.

The fact of the matter is that if you are strong, in the short term predation is most rewarding, at the cost of future retaliation. if you are not weak, In the medium term cooperation is most rewarding. In the long term, if you are weak, parasitism is most rewarding.

And this is what we see: a predatory upper class, a productive middle class, and a parasitic underclass.

There are no possible perpetual motion machines, including those of a polity, economy, and kin group.

We must always defeat the dark forces of time, ignorance, and scarcity, despite that some of us are strong and competent, some of us not weak but competent, and some of us weak and incompetent.

We are, like all nature, bound by the basic laws of the universe, and in particular, the laws of thermodynamics. All civilization is merely an attempt to cooperate at larger and larger scales, by trading off near pleasures, for future returns.