Have you heard of the seven deadly sins? Can you list them?
Many of us have heard of them but can’t list them. They are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. They sound a bit antiquated and somehow resonate with medieval vices decried by angry preachers … Nevertheless they are behaviours that most people agree make them unhappy, or at least uncomfortable, in themselves. And most human development guidance would encourage virtues that contrast with those sins. Encouraging humility, charity, patience, kindness, chastity, temperance and diligence all contribute to happy communities.
But those virtues might seem antiquated and boring! A simple recognition on one’s own internal moral compass is usually good enough and, eventually, people find their self-esteem and insecurities dissipate, so love can flourish bringing them a positive feeling.
A few days ago I heard about “Ghandi’s seven deadly sins” and wondered what that’s all about. They are interesting because they are a listing of seemingly good things that are bad when corrupt:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Religion without sacrifice.
Politics without principle.
That list resonated. In today’s mad world the rich and powerful seem to be dominating and extracting more wealth and power from society and nature, rather than supporting a thriving species and planet. The list suggests that the virtues are work, conscience, character, morality, humanity, sacrifice and principle. They don’t seem to be much in evidence among global leaders. The values exhibited at the top seem to be deception, fraud, violence, theft, abuse, bigotry, selfishness and ignorance.
You might wonder about some of those “virtues” in Gandhi’s list. How is “sacrifice” a virtue? And could sacrifice justify the dogma and mantra of religion? I don’t think it can, but surely religion without sacrifice is simply organised dominion over others. Yet “sacrifice”, when voluntary, is an important element of personal growth. We experience it when we work hard to achieve a personal goal, like running faster, having a clean home, learning new ideas, or nurturing children.
Some kind of pain seems to be a requirement for growth, but it’s more tolerable when it’s self-inflicted, and when we take on challenges ourselves the positive change is quicker and better. After all, failing is a big part of learning, perhaps the biggest. If we’re not failing we’re not pushing boundaries, we’re not going beyond our current limits to find new understanding in body and mind.
The reality which is often obscured by the corruption of virtuous role models is that we are our own best teachers. The process of finding out about ourselves is a fundamental requirement for the emergence of consciousness in ourselves. Most people achieve that, despite modest resources, and find themselves happily a part of communities where love connects people. It is a small percentage of us who climb the pyramid of power to seek to control people and nature. The vast majority of people around the world are forgiving and allow the dangerous unrequited egos to “rule”.
That game of tolerance has reached the end-game. The vile reality of selfish greed and control at the top has been exposed on everyone’s phones, while we all feel the rising volatility of weather and increasing cost of living. Humanity is beginning to look for the courage to control the egos that rule us, while nurturing the compassion that forgives them, and us, for allowing the disconnection from nature and reality.
Perhaps we can simplify our moral compass and nurture the virtue of love, which is humanity’s “killer app”. Love is putting others first. It is altruism. It founded the earliest “economies” which were all about giving excess to those without. Humans did not survive ice ages and sabre tooth tigers by being individualistic and selfish. A person is basically a soft bag of water which can not survive on it’s own. At the basic level, infants need nurturing for years by more than one parent. And sharing and cooperating was the tool that allowed groups of people to get through an ice age and outsmart beasts far stronger and more dangerous than humans. Communication, collaboration, trust are the altruistic virtues upon which human society is built. Competition, control and selfishness are the tools of individual, ignorant fear which is used by narcissistic systems to contaminate society.
Love offers compassion, patience and humour which will serve humanity well as it finds more natural systems to live with. And a first step on that journey can be to temper human systems with enlightened values:
The first admonition in the list is to work for a living. That shouldn’t seem so unacceptable. And with the understanding of how things work and the leverage of technology we can certainly produce sufficient for all human to thrive – if most of it is not reserved for the top 1%. Work would be self-serving, as well as community serving. And it ought to be fulfilling in itself which will yield dignity as well as production.
Pleasure without conscience loses its allure. It soon becomes boring as joy is made mundane. If pleasure is at another’s expense it costs too much. Yet serving others bring happiness – that is what altruism is all about. It works.
Knowledge without character is truth without honesty. It is false, and false knowledge soon dies. Honesty offers understanding which gives life to knowledge. Truths that tell lies poison our minds and soon enough our bodies. Reflect on the false presentations told by marketing campaigns, especially in food and consumer goods. We are encouraged to eat ultra processed foods which pollute us (sugar and chemicals) and where we live (waste packaging). In the West 80% of our food is supplied by 7 massive conglomerates and its mostly processed and packaged. And then we pay to clean up the garbage and pay the doctors’ bills because we are eating bad food. A similar situation exists with clothing, consumer goods, vehicles, furnishings, and more.
Clearly morality is missing from most of our decisions and the worst offender is commerce and trade in which the name of the game seems to be defrauding your customers in broad daylight. Perhaps social media is where this is most aggregious as value is extracted from users without knowledge and consent is given simply as a requirement for use.
It is incongruous to see humanity as a value to be applied to science because science is supposed to be hygienic or sterile and not contaminated by human biases. So what is meant by “science with humanity”? It is to recognise the intrinsic desire for understanding that all humans have. Humans are curious and imaginative. In fact making up ideas, often of things that don’t exist, is a way to considering and interpreting the world around. Myths and legends are not truths and did not emerge from a scientific process, but they gave their communities a framework for understanding natural phenomena so they could get on with other things without worrying. Science is a process that emerged from that curiosity combined with reason. Gradually the dominant beliefs of humanity have changed to a deeper understanding of the universe as faith has been replaced by reason. And because science is a process of reason it is helped by the altruistic values of humanity, like compassion, which encourage us to challenge our own thinking. It allows us to accept not knowing “the truth” while we look for it.
It is not easy for a scientist to think of religion as a positive behaviour at all. Science is the opposite of religion:
Religion is about answers that may not be questioned.
Science (philosophy) is about asking questions that might have no answer.
And where does sacrifice come in? Certainly religion without sacrifice is likely to be more toxic than religion with sacrifice. At least with sacrifice there is a notion that the religion is giving something as opposed to taking (eg riches). But can not thinking can not be replaced by sacrifice? Surely monks and nuns did/do both. They adopt dogma and mantra without question, while putting themselves in uncomfortable situations like cold, spartan lodgings, self-abuse, chastity and so on. It is true that difficulties challenge us and it is in enduring challenges that we find our capacities, extend our boundaries and come to know ourselves, but this does need to happen in an unquestioning way. It seems that the thoughtlessness of religion can not be absolved through suffering, even if it makes it less egregious. And thinking is what humanity is all about. Humanity is the emergent meta-consciousness, that is awareness that can observe itself. So be religious about asking, and answering, questions, not adhering to unexplained and unreasonable rules.
And finally on to human affairs – politics. What principle(s) ought to govern politics? Surely the author is suggesting morality, or at least ethics. But ethics mean little if not enshrined in law and the justice system. That seems to be the purpose of politics – to agree laws and the process of executing them. So politics needs principle or morality to be virtuous. That seems to make sense. Without morality politics is simply control of others by the few who manage to persuade everyone of “state laws”. There is no reasonable justification for them. Perhaps it is simpler and more direct to say society needs morality and ethics.
So reflecting on those sins and virtues brings us to a simple conclusion. Be honest. Be moral. We all have a moral compass – it’s that gut feeling. So, if we don’t turn a blind eye to our own inner guide, we can each try to do the right thing the right way. No need for a list of virtues or sins because we all know what is good and what is not. Then as we all choose to do the right thing the right way we will live in tune with nature (with universal dynamics) and thrive. When we reconnect with nature and share love we become human.
being human.
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