Moral Statements
The Moral Strategies of Survival. Choose Yours Wisely
Originally I wanted just a few simple quotes that would show the essence of morality, how
life persists,
but a few were added with minor explanations. These are not clever sayings about self
improvement or finding peace of mind. They are to clarify what a morality is - a method of
survival. Sometimes human survival is not as simple as it seems it would be, because we are
more than animals already.
"Yes, the cats may catch you if you are not careful, but
we must find food to survive.
We must work together to make the hunt a success."
- A Paleolithic tribal strategy.
"The hunt is what matters. Kill the cats when you can."
- A common early Neolithic tribal strategy.
"Kill the men. Enslave the women and children."
- A common late Neolithic tribal strategy common until the time of Rome.
"Flee. Flee for your lives."
- Said by many at different times. Some lived. Some didn't.
"love one another"
- Jesus of Nazareth - the best way to reduce violence and promote the cooperation necessary for civilization to work.
"Colossians 3:13 - Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
- One of many Bible verses about forgiveness. If you check history, these beliefs were critical to ending feuds and other conflicts that were very destructive tribal strategies. This is another very important belief that led to Western Civilization.
"We fight to stop the fall of darkness."
- All those that have fought the fall of civilizations through history.
"I want my child to grow taller than myself."
- To paraphrase a fictional character... that spoke the thoughts of all parents.
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference, that you have lived and lived well."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
We shall fight on the seas and oceans,
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
We shall fight on the beaches,
We shall fight on the landing grounds,
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight in the hills;
We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”
“What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who live in it after we are gone?”
- Winston Churchill
“During WWII, Churchill was asked to cut funding for the arts. He replied, ‘Then what are we fighting for?’"
- Quote attributed to Winston Churchill, but unlikely to be true. It does point out that civilization has more complicated aspects. I believe these are necessary to survival.
"Greed Is good."
- Gordon Gekko on Materialism.
"The thing with money is, it makes you do things you don't want to do."
- Lou Mannheim on the problem of Materialism.
If the main industry of a country is not about raising the next generation, then the country has no future.