How it shall be.

Your life is a series of decisions. You will have a lifetime of small decisions, which, built each other, will ultimately shape your life and determine your destiny. Be in charge of your life. The decisions you make now, will shape your future.

Forgiveness is more important than vengeance.

Altruism means acting in the interest of others rather than in one’s own self-interest. Altruism can be considered to be the essence of morality. We may have selfish tendencies, but they need to be moderated, but we also have cooperative tendencies, which need to be enhanced. Helping others has the side effect of giving us feelings of elevation. Altruism will help you build social connections. Even those people in white coats that hold clip boards will tell you that your altruism will lead you to happiness, health, and longevity.

You are responsible for your own future. (You are the creator of your own destiny.)

Be aware that you are often far from completely rational. Your ethical choices tend to be made intuitively without complexity of complex analysis. When you make an unethical decision, it may have been influenced by internal biases, including self-interest. It may have been influenced by outside pressures, such as the pressure to conform, or other factors less apparent.

Morals are the existing standards of behavior in your region that enable people to live cooperatively.

Our ability to be ethical is incomplete. We are all susceptible to the making of unethical decisions.

Avoid favouring yourself at the expense of others.

Tread carefully where there is a conflict of interest.

The ‘end’ does not justify the ‘means’.

Be also aware of conformity bias, which is the tendency you have to behave as those around you rather than to your usual moral standards. Just because someone else did a wrong, does not mean that you can do a wrong. Do not follow the herd when the herd is wrong.

In the bible, it states marriage is between a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others, and so it shall be.

Avoid listening to ‘Phony Science’. Nature created only two genders. It is extremely rare for nature to make an error. Errors are of a low rate. Some errors may have been caused by humans messing with nature including ‘the pill’. If a child has a Y chromosome, their sex and gender is male. If they do not have a Y chromosome, they are female. If someone thinks otherwise, suspect brainwashing.

Not everything in life will go your way. Life will have its disappointments.

You are not required to win at everything you do.

Chasing success has no endpoint.

Beware of groupthink! Groupthink occurs when people’s desire to maintain group loyalty becomes more important than making the best decisions. You may find it hard to think and act independently in group situations. Your moral judgement may waver under group pressure. Group decisions, which may include moral judgments, can often be more extreme than any single member originally supported. Groupthink can cause you to value harmony and consensus over quality independent judgment. It can lead to unethical behavior.

In your sports and hobbies, operate within the rules, but also uphold the ‘spirit’ of the rules.

In your business dealings, be a good ‘corporate citizen’. Corporate Social Responsibility involves going beyond the legal obligations in protecting the environment and contributing to social welfare. The world and your community should become a better place with your business activities and should cause not damage in the present or the future.

Avoid corruption, the abuse of power or position for personal gain. Work against corruption in its many forms which include bribery, embezzlement, and extortion. Corruption is widespread, but will be less due to your actions.

An endless list of moral laws, such as “Don’t lie.  Don’t steal.  Don’t cheat”, can produce results that are unacceptable. Rigid negative rules do not always give the most ethical outcome. A good ethical code is taught to us when young so that we can distinguish between right and wrong without using a rule book. The Philosophy of Jesus as prevalent in the West has this doctrine as a core tenet. It is present in some but not all religions and is practiced in many countries, particularly among the working people, but is often ignored by the political class, and those that control the political class.

Don’t ignore your responsibilities to others in need or distress just because others are equally present.

You may need to sacrifice your own short-term interests for the benefit of your society.

The need for ethics over-rides profit, or your obsession with success. Never be blind to the ethical component of a decision. Do not restructure reality to make your actions seem less harmful.

Codes of conduct express relevant ethical standards. Follow the code whilst also following the spirit of the code. Campaign when the code is inadequate or ineffective.

You need to come to a decision about the Ethics of War. Is it ever right to go to war? When is it right to wage war? What is the moral way to conduct a war?

Your politicians and those that control your political process understand propaganda better than you do. War is a system where you shoot people of another country because your leaders have a disagreement with their leaders. I never voted for war and I doubt you will never vote for war. But war will come to you. But war has many forms. If it alters your culture or demographics and is influenced from something or somebody in another country, it is war.

There is a dangerous branch of ethics called ‘Utilitarianism. It posits that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good. It is the only moral framework that can be used to justify military action and war.

Other people’s definition of moral behavior may differ to yours.

Make sure that your obedience to authority and your enthusiasm to please those in charge does not damage your own independent ethical judgment. Blind obedience to those in charge can have unfortunate consequences.

Being good to others does not mean that they are allowed to abuse you. You do not need to be tolerant of the intolerant. You have no obligation to assist those that take advantage of your decency.

You are allowed to protect yourself. Your country is obligated to protect itself.

The story of the ‘Good Samaritan’ is also a story of a society gone bad. It is bad policy to tolerate persons that don’t operate to the standards of the ‘Philosophy of Jesus’. Let them demonstrate ‘Common Decency’ or send them back to where they came from. A diverse country is a split and weak country. Unity of purpose it more important than diversity of purpose. The story of the ‘Good Samaritan’ contains

It is better that you avoid cheating.

You can create your ethical framework from your upbringing, or your religion, or this passage. You can follow the ethics of your Church, but it is still you that is responsible for your ethical standards and their application. You will be judged harshly for an incorrect set of ethical standards as well as poor implementation of your ethical standards. Not only ‘Do the right thing’ but also be seen to do the right thing’. Demonstrate that you are doing the right thing as a badge of honour.

Take your fiduciary duty in a serious manner. Be honest about conflicts of interest. Accidental violations are still a breach of ethics.

Support your nation and its people honourably. There will be traitors that manipulate from outside and from within as a Trojan horse. I know. They have worked on me many times. And they may suddenly appear and treat you like a long lost friend. Their skill will be ‘bringing you into ‘their fold’ for their nation’s benefit not your nations benefit. The traitor is not to be tolerated.

Disapprove of behaviour rather than denigrating the person. It is bad behaviour rather than bad child.

When criticizing, be conscious of the possible existence of situational factors.

Consider more that your pleasure or pain in making choices.

You may have a bias between in-groups and out-groups. It is natural, but be wary. It may affect your moral judgement.

Cutting small corners can lead to cutting bigger corners. Big crimes can develop from small crimes. Ongoing exposure to unethical behavior may desensitize you to wrongdoing giving the impression of normality.

Do not expect justice from a nation-state ‘Justice System’. Legalism does not produce good outcomes. It also tends to require libraries full of legal text. Justice has an element of fairness, but it may be different for different groups. Nation-state justice has a heavy element of retribution, whilst giving the illusion of punishing wrongdoers objectively and proportionately. It relies heavily on punishment. Under nation-state law, you will find cold, uncaring dictates. Religions are different. They tend to guide society without locking people up. Nation-state justice systems attempt to maintain law and order whilst attempting to achieve justice. It is difficult to operate a nations-state if the citizens do not individually honour high ethical standards. And so it is necessary to bring up the young with their individual moral codes that blend well with all others in society. If you bring in people from other regions that follow a different moral code, expect problems of the type mentioned in the story of the ‘Good Samaritan’.

It is a problem with nations that the better-off are more politically aware and influence the laws in their favour.

Moral codes tend to go out of the window during war. Do not allow yours to go out of the window.

Life tends to be random and throw new scenarios at you. You need your own code to guide you. The guidance works best if the code is yours and you have previously adapted and adopted it so you trust its guidance. External rules are too slow to act upon and stressful to implement. You may be called an “ideologue”, but you can be complemented for being ‘a fully formed, free thinking individual’.

Be careful that your competitive nature does not lead you to take unethical actions.

Expect losses and gains. You will not gain in every action. You must take the rough with the smooth. It may be that hate your losses more than you enjoy your gains. You may be prone to lie and cheat to avoid losing something your worked hard to gain. Your natural aversion to loss may lead you to make unethical and illegal choices.

You may meet strong disagreements about which moral principles are correct and which are incorrect.

Most people in the Christian West would assume that we should treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves. However, religions often put their adherents above those of other religions. It may not be noticeable at a casual observation, but they may favour their own for job appointments and in other spheres. When push comes to shove or in trying times, they will band together and look after their own. When you treat others as you wish to be treated yourself, do not assume that it is reciprocal.

Others will have different view on the morality of abortion, capital punishment, bribery, and nepotism. You cannot be assured that there are ‘absolute’ moral values. Moral principles vary greatly among cultures, nations, and religions. You will at times have to be tolerant of other’s moral values and other times you will have to stand against other’s moral values.

You need to be a person who has the ability to discern right from wrong. You shall be held accountable for his or her own actions. You have a moral responsibility not to cause unjustified harm. We should also the same from corporations and those acting within corporations. ‘Company Policy’ is no excuse. ‘For the shareholders’ is no excuse.

Do not expect your brain to make the moral judgment in a situation nor to make perfect decisions. Your brain was not designed to cope with the situations that we now face in our day-to-day lives. We are taking our brain beyond its design capacity. At times you need to ‘slow down’. You will not make good decisions when there is a cacophony of dramas and phone calls. You need to train yourself and clearly establish what you will and will not accept at a moral level. You do not lower your standards with begging from friends, family, and acquaintances.

Moral judgments can stretch your emotional strength. The negative emotions, including guilt, embarrassment, and shame will tend to encourage you to act ethically, but they can also cause you to act immorally.

Anger, disgust, and contempt directed at a person or group that has acted acted unethically tends to discourage further unethical activity. Expressing positive emotions including gratitude and admiration, to complement compassion and kindness will prompt others to help others. Empathy is another core emotion that encourages a high levels of compassionate ethics. Thus, we may assume that ethics is not natural. Ethics must be taught and encouraged. Before we became civilized, we had no rules on theft, rape, and murder. We might assume they were the natural order. When we became civilised, we created rules about these actions that we now consider inappropriate. When society collapses in times of strife or war, these things reoccur. If we simply make rules enforced with punishment, we have a problem in that people will carry out the activities if they think they can get away un-noticed. We also have the problem in that the murder or rape has to occur before we lock the person up. Thus a rape has occurred and we have the additional problem of incarcerating the person. The solution is a well ingrained ‘ethical’ training to prevent these things before they occur. Thus the training of the very young. In the West, this followed the ‘Philosophy of Jesus’. The Church being something separate.

You may assume that your moral decisions are determined most by your philosophy or religious values, however, your emotions also play a role in our ethics and decision-making.

You will need strength of character to solve some of the ethical challenges you will face. It is imperative that children of your society are given a good grounding in moral ethics. It is your duty to ensure that this happens. It also explains why bringing people in from outside your area is fraught with problems as they have had a different or faulty education in ethics.

Do not ‘look the other way’ when you see unethical activity.

In nature, violence is useful. In civilization, it is not.

Love is not always right! Marriage has a specific function and purpose. It is not some ‘ancient prejudices’ that necessitates rejection of the redefinition of marriage. God designed men for women and women for men. It is best when a child has a mother and father in a traditional family.

It is common to demand ‘rights’ but ignore responsibility. Somebody’s right is someone-else’s responsibility. For example: The ‘right’ to and education puts a responsibility on someone else to provide that education. ‘Rights’ generate corresponding ‘responsibilities’ for someone else. Responsibility has to be encouraged in a community so that some can claim ‘rights’. Human rights are incompatible where a society moves towards individualism. Rights can only exist where others are prepared to take on responsibilities. You can forget your rights if you land on a desert island. If people start to demand ‘rights’, then responsibility will slowly get thrown out of the window and civilization will degrade. The question needs to be asked: “Should those not prepared to take responsibilities have the opportunity to demand ‘rights’?

Live Below Your Means.

Without health, you have nothing. Living a healthy lifestyle. Look after your body. Eat appropriately. Minimize addictions.

Tell the truth as best you can. But more importantly, avoid telling a lie.

Your reputation is precious.Look after it.

Be careful not to take things too seriously.

Minimize material possessions and maximize experiences. Fill your life with experiences not things. Have stories to tell not stuff to show. Living a rich and fulfilling life. Elbert Hubbard put it this way:

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

Elbert Hubbard

Recognise that time has moved on and the

Treat life as a game, not a chore.

Choose happiness.

It is never OK to cheat or steal.

Do not join any agenda that is against your culture, your young, and your way of life. It will enable your destruction and demise.

Assist authority to do their jobs with godly wisdom. When that is not an option, beware that the enemy will not hesitate to fill the void. You may not even recognize them as the enemy for they will create a great show, whilst in reality, they are traitors.

Sharks, like most animals, have no compassion for their victims. It was like that with humans until we made the rules that created civilization. The people that mad the rules tied it up with some superstitious stuff and became known as religious people. The rule makers controlled the people without jails. The rules were taught to the very young to embed it into the psyche of the people. Moses made many negative rules with nasty punishments. “If you do this, we bury you up to your neck and throw rocks at you. If you do that we hang you from a tree until dead.” Jesus changed all this and brought in the concept of redemption. You go to heaven if you act good through your life. If you have been bad, you can still get to heaven, if you start to be good, or even ‘extra’ good. If we break our civilization or our religion, we are liable to go back to ‘the rule of the jungle’ where humans operated under a ‘no rules’ system. This is something to avoid. Yesterday, I was watching a television program about crime in Africa, and one male talked about three times that he could remember killing people to get what he wanted. He talked as if it was commonsense to murder someone if that person held something he wanted. His parents had been killed and he had basically brought himself up on the streets. It was straightforward logic to him to kill to get what he needed. It was only concern for incarceration the inhibited him. Thus, if he was unlikely to get caught, it was simple logic to kill the person to obtain the possessions. Kindly, do not rubbish your upbringing and education. A large part of it was ethical training and a smaller part was the three ‘R’s.

Christians believe that God sent Jesus to be his prophet and set people right. Over the centuries, Christians moved away from the Truth and ‘exaggerated’ Christ into a Divine Person.

There is a significant difference in how Christians understand God and how other religions understand God. For all intents and purposes, they are describing a different god. The God of the New Testament is a kindly, forgiving god.

Look after the atmosphere, seas, rivers and land. You are but a temporary tenant of the world.