Thread by @EthicalRenewal

Everyone’s trying to sell you something, or take something off you, or get you to do something.
Everyone’s out for themselves.
No one can be trusted.
People are greedy.
People are lazy.
It’s a dog-eat-dog world.

That’s how I sometimes feel.

1/31
#shieldofvalues
#trust

But it’s far from the truth, isn’t it?

These are just the lies we’re being told – or it’s people behaving that way because of the lies they’ve been told.

2/31
#shieldofvalues
#greed

Our media is our enemy – and much of our schooling too.
We’re victims of cognitive imperialism – and the invading empire has established its outposts in the hinterlands of our minds.

3/31
#media #Enemy #shieldofvalues

Here's what our media keeps hammering home:
–Selfishness is king
–Greed is queen
–Profit's our God
–The economy’s our religion
–Ownership’s our temple
–Wealth's our sacrament
–Ruthlessness is admirable
–Acquisition's commendable
–Always want more
–Winner takes all
Happy now?
4/31

I’m not sure I am.

“Me neither.”

And that’s the interesting thing, isn’t it? This obsession with having more, needing more, buying more isn’t making any of us happy. In fact, the very reverse.
The human world is full to the brim with unhappiness.

5/31
#shieldofvalues
#happy

We’ve been infected by ideas about the supreme value of money and possessions, and it’s not doing any of us much good.
“Apart from the privileged 0.1%...”
And there’s the irony. I think it’s harming them, too.

6/31
#shieldofvalues
#harm

I’ve a surprise for you.
“A nice one, I hope.”
It’s something you can’t live without.
“I’m intrigued.
You won’t be disappointed…
“I won’t?”

7/31
#shieldofvalues
#surprise

It’s a suit of armour.
“Armour?”
Hm. I can see that sounds a little disappointing to you… Well, maybe more a shiny, chainmail shirt…
“Like Frodo’s?”
Well, maybe not quite up to his standards. I’ve no mithril to hand. Perhaps not a chainmail shirt. Perhaps more of a shield.
8/31

“A shield?”
A shield.
“For medieval battle re-enactment?”
No, for something much more modern. A shield to ward off the ideas that are making us unhappy. Like a software firewall, but for the mind.
“You’re right. I’m not disappointed.”
I’m glad.
“Everyone should have one.”

9/31

I call this firewall of the mind a Shield of Values. It takes a little setting up.

“Will you show me?”

I’d be delighted.

10/31
#shieldofvalues

A shield needs a frame–to give it shape, make it distinctive, make it a thing.
The shield we’re building–a shield of values–needs to resist the self-harming, eco-destructive concepts jeopardising the modern age. It needs a straightforward frame that out-simplifies the lies.
11/31

A shield of values needs a frame like this:
(i) Nurture others.
(ii) Nurture humanity as a whole.
(iii) Nurture and protect the biological world.
That’s it.
Objectives so simple and uncontroversial they feel like common sense.
Objectives that give your shield its shape.
12/31

Just like the human chest our shield needs ribs: to hold the frame in place, it ensure it keeps its shape. These are the values underpinning our objectives. Values like these:

(i) Life is precious.

(ii) We’re all life: water in the same river; sparks from the same fire.

13/31

Values like these:

(iii) All living things are inherently equal, all deserving of compassion and respect.

(iv) All living things, to the best of our ability, should be nurtured and loved.

14/31
#shieldofvalues

These values are the ribs of your shield: supple, simple and easily understood – a straightforward commitment to all living things.

15/31
#shieldofvalues
#commitment
#life

But what imbues these values and objectives with authority – makes them grab your attention, your imagination, your commitment? What gives this frame of ours, this shield of values, its strength?

16/31
#shieldofvalues
#commitment
#strength

Any shield of values – any morality – needs a backbone, a spine, otherwise it becomes just whim: a pick-and mix selection of values and aspirations chosen almost at random from the normative chaos our society keeps thrusting down our throats.

17/31
#shieldofvalues
#spine

Some people use God as their source of moral authority – but, since many don’t, we won’t.

Here’s a source of authority anyone can use:
Life.
Life itself.

18/31
#shieldofvalues
#life

Life is our tangible, ever-present, utterly evident source of purpose & meaning. Where else can purpose come from except life?
Dead stuff has no purpose–except the purpose given it by things that live.
Purpose originates from life… & life’s ultimate purpose? Life itself.

19/31

We see this embodied in the vast complexity of the biosphere, in the history of evolution, in the desire of every living thing to live.
It’s this–the centrality of life–that provides the ultimate authority and strength-giving spine for your shield.

20/31
#shieldofvalues
#life

Now we have the frame, the ribs & spine, but our shield also requires a skin.
What kind of skin does a shield of values need?
It needs a lie-deflecting but truth-porous skin of quick-fire principles that derive directly from the frame & ribs & spine…

21/31
#ShieldOfValues

Our shield of values needs a skin like this:

(i) We’re all equal.

(ii) We all have the right to be free.

(iii) Within your capacity and the opportunities given you, seek the fulfilment of all humans everywhere.

(iv) Do not cause humans or other lifeforms to suffer.

22/31

Principles like this:

(v) Do not seek power – seek only your fulfilment and the flourishing of others.

(vi) Do not seek wealth – seek only your fulfilment and the flourishing of others.

(vii) Do not idolise individuals – idolise only their good actions.

23/31
#shield

Principles like this:

(viii) Do not idolise possessions–possessions should serve humanity and the thriving of all life.

(ix) Do not idolise artefacts: organisations, traditions, constitutions or nations. These artefacts must serve humans and humanity, not the reverse.

24/31

And this:

(x) Do not wait to do good until others do good also. Take the first moral step, the second moral step, and the third.

(xi) Be honest.

(xii) Be kind.

That’s it: the skin of your shield.

25/31
#shieldofvalues

We have our shield of values: frame, ribs, spine, skin. It’s well-made and strong.
But it needs to be a shield anyone can use, to defend themselves from the corrupting narratives of a greedy and heartless world.
Our shield needs a strap to hold it tight against our arms.

26/31

Universality is that strap. The universal applicability of our values. The universal applicability of being alive, of valuing life. This is our shield’s grip and buckle and strap. This is how we bind the shield to us.

27/31
#shieldofvalues
#universal

The universal applicability of our values is what allows us to stand together, shoulder to shoulder, holding up our shields, resisting the bombardment of a captured press, a lackey media, the super-spreading of malign propaganda and lies.

28/31
#shieldofvalues

Our shield is made. A shield of values for our Age of Lies.

FRAME
Your objectives; your core moral aims.

RIBS
Your values, supporting those aims.

SPINE
The authority of your values, arising out of life itself.

29/31
#shieldofvalues

A shield against the mind plague:

SKIN
The principles you deploy in everyday life.

STRAP
The universal applicability of your values, arising from the universality of life.

30/31
#shieldofvalues

Now let your elbow be an anvil, your legs two pylons… and brace yourself solid as a rock.

Nothing wicked, nothing malign, no pandemic of lies can penetrate such a well-made shield.

31/31
#shieldofvalues