Life with Principal

The following is a reply to an early imaginary 19th century philosopher and worker frozen in time.He bemoans the lack of principle existing in commerce at that time in history. Henry was not happy with the pursuit of wealth without principle.

Henry would have been happier today if he had known what is now known about science and the world. He laments the values attributable in society to those whose status is determined on the sole principles of money, enterprise and work. His era had very limited restraints on development such as the welfare state and complex laws and rights to protect community interest.

The case for complexity from non complex beginnings means with fewer restraints in any “open system” there will be inevitable skewing of extreme advantage to the minority who happen “by chance” to be in privileged position to take advantage of their unique position in history. Even to day it is interesting to note the 2nd richest man an in the world Warren Buffet of Berthshire Hathaway has been quoted “ I have been extraordinarily successful in my field as an expert in “asset allocation” at a time when being an expert in this area gave greater returns than in any other form of endeavor on earth at this time. Had I been born a peasant with the same talents a few hundred years ago but had difficulty with a basic peasant farming I may well have starved to death like many of my forebears.

Henry would have been pleased to know there is now ample evidence to show the more advanced civilizations owe their very early development to purely random events. Some of our early ancestors emerging from the forests migrated to the plains where there was a greater concentration of edible material and opportunity later for agriculture. They were able to put down roots earlier, form larger cooperative groups and eventually build on technology. Other species of man in other regions were not so fortunate and had to keep moving, following the seasons to survive and became isolated and “cut off “ as new continents were formed. Th e changes in climatic conditions in different regions gave rise to a greater ability to store grain and crops in some regions and thus allow sustainable development. That more fortunate group developed rapidly and became the so-called civilizations that we describe today.

These random events and the subsequent human development meant some early explorers where full of their own importance and self aggrandizement as they wrote in their first memoirs that the “savages” they encountered were not really human beings” at all and attributed all of their “superiority “ to be linked to their “enterprise and “breeding” identified sometimes as to be a “white” skin color. If you accept our so called success”{for want of a better word) is due to the random nature of our evolved existence than it leads one to the conclusion we should be humble and compassionate in all of our ways.
And so dear Henry “There’s a hole in your Bucket! “ and we need to fix it! . But how shall we fix it,‘Dear Henry, Dear Henry?

Truth, Wisdom & Happiness
I could not find any reference to Henry having a belief in god but I am sure it was so accepted at that time (95% of people then believed in god) and he didn’t feel the need to sate this. The truth however is that christen faith exceeds the capacity of human reason.In fact our measure of happiness can be improved if we accept our limitation particularly in terms of curbing aspirations to attaining certain outcomes “by for trying to force the issue so to speak”. A recent study carried out has come up with a conclusion (for a period over the past 200 years) we don't seems to be getting any happier despite our obvious increase in material well-being and in general health. Why is this “ Because our expectations keep increasing at an even faster rate.” When we don’t reach them we become unhappy.” Just like praying for a definite outcome rather than asking that we can remain strong to our principles.

Our aspirations need to be “descriptive” based upon “principles “ and not prescriptive in a world that has always been a continuum of uncertainty and randomness. The truth is we only have free will to make a tiny number of decisions (those we are in a conscious state to know as opposed to the vast number made subconsciously for us in our marvelous brains) at a point in time. Any influence over the final outcome will in turn be determined by the guiding principle we adopted in the first instance. The way forward for the world and civilization is to developed principles that show reverence for all life and to encapsulate these in every layer of society so they become universal. This reverence for life also needs to include in commerce dealings to include principles that protect the stakeholders by enunciating such aspects as “openness, honesty full disclosure and basic human rights aspects that set minimum standards for all stakeholders (including the animals) with a minimum world standard. You would be pleased to hear in my company Henry we operate in 39 countries and have “On Line Counselors” from the “St James Ethics Center” who have developed such a “Value System:” This is now only possible by virtue of the world wide web by e-mail ( a form of written communication) where we can communicate across all countries with embedded security so that governments or customers or other employees are not privy to any of the detailed discussions where principles or ethical issues are aired without fear or recrimination.

This gives all our employees the greatest encouragement to maintain they’re high principles always guided by the company’ value system principles, which are usually, the same. This ensures worldwide any employee anywhere in the world can seek independent support should he be not satisfied with the company’s behavior on any one aspect at one time. No more graft or corruption will be tolerated anywhere in the world as far as we can ensure.

Ethics centers and Centers of Influence with guiding descriptive principles need to become embedded in every organization and in particular within the fabric of our world trade. Only in this way will capitalism be able to progress in a harmonious and principlined way my dear henry. This is how we need to fix the hole in the bucket, dear henry, dear henry-We will fix it!.

However there are other aspects of life we are still struggling to understand.

Nature and Truth
The truth of nature has been shown by observation and experimental analysis to be continually evolving over time. Continuous change and rapid complex changes from non complex beginnings even give a known variant to the original Darwinian theory of evolution. Hence there is in an inbult complexity to creation hitherto unknown that has just emerged into our understanding. This leads me to the truth that god is either in everything or is in nothing and creation is a “moving feast”. Obviously I would ascribe to the first notion that god is in everything and creation is continuing. But this then leads us to an interesting observation as to the role of nature and in fact does nature operate according to certain principles-principles I mean, as we understand as humans? And can we ascribe any moral or ethical values or responsibility to nature. ?

Do the animals adhere to principles and depart from them sometimes? Or is it nearly all instinctive or pre programmed in the genes of evolution. How much of their behavior is learned and adapted and to what extent do these developments enter into a state of “consciousness” where they are aware of themselves just like ourselves.