Yup wrote this up from my thoughts during the Christmas break. It's a summary since I have yet to expand on it with examples and such, plus there are probably contradictions in there somewhere.
A Theory Of Balance
An Event is a complex situation in which people interact with others through choices. In life, we are presented with many choices, and the outcome of those choices have an impact on ourselves and our surroundings. This impact affects our traits, personality as well as others’ if they are part of the event. We will refer to the ensemble of all the characteristics we possess as Values.
We may take up an action or inaction when presented with a choice. A choice will present itself when we acknowledge it, which may be the result of our own recollection or a result of another person’s action. There is another way in which we may shape our surroundings, and that is simply by being present in an event, while not participating in any rational way or form. In this case, we may not be aware of the event and therefore no choice presents itself. But, we will still take some sort of action or more generally no action at all which will unknowingly affect others tied to that event.
A choice produces consequences of equal amounts of these two flavors: Positive and Negative. If a choice presents itself, then an Event is created. If we are alone, with no other rational being present, the event remains isolated to ourselves and we alone will feel the consequences of our choice. If we are interacting with another person or persons, then these consequences will also be shared with them. These consequences will affect specific values belonging to a person. We can view this effect under an unrealistically simplistic lens through examples.
Say we have one person named Dan and another named Joe. This example will have a foremost focus on Dan. Dan is honest and Joe is touchy. Joe asks Dan one day to tell him what he thinks of his collection of fine china. Dan is presented with a choice, he thinks the china is quite ugly, and given as he’s honest he bluntly tells this to Joe. Joe gets mad, and stops talking to Dan. One of Dan’s many consequences as a result of this event is that he might become less honest, as his honesty caused him to lose a friend. This is a prime example of a negative consequence. Dan also gained in this interaction however, as he may also have become a bit more diplomatic as a result. He will try to consider the feelings of others in his interactions, and this will drive him to being less blunt. In a similar manner, Joe gains and loses from this event.
Even a simple event can become tremendously complicated as humans interact with each other and their surroundings. The consequences we accumulate throughout our lives through events shape our values. Consequences can undermine or improve our values, and many of these effects are long-term as consequences may take a bit of time to “set-in” on our psyche, although physically they can be instantaneous. However, the consequences’ impacts are shared physically and psychologically.
But, because consequences affect the choices that people make in other events, those consequences can be carried over from person to person. However, as the distance from the source of the consequences becomes greater, the effects of those consequences on choices become much lower. Even so, consequences will expand outwardly to others unless the source is isolated. How far and how great the consequences will be are attributed to how strong the choice is.
We can estimate that our society is a Collective of these choices and consequences, a collective of everyone’s values pooled into a single set This again is fairly simplistic, as the participation of everyone in a society varies greatly from person to person and also over time. Great choices that take the entirety of society into account, such as a choice of whether or not to go to War, can have a deep impact on this society. Society is a strong structure, however it is simultaneously frail. A society in which the values are not in balance and which are continuously offset by choices will eventually collapse. As society falls into disorder, it disintegrates. Choices prompting the improvement of values of a society while downgrading others which are already in great favor will help keep our values in balance. The promotion of balance can be viewed in the same way as balancing a scale. We will remove from one side and simultaneously add to the other to achieve a greater balance.
Finally, consequences are not instantaneous, and may take a while to settle in. Some accumulate over time with consequences from other events, however if left alone, they will shape our values through our own self reflection and thorough thinking. Therefore choices will have immediate physical impacts, but psychologically the effects will take time to process.
This is all fine as a theory, but how can we apply it on our daily lives? Because of the complexity this theory implies, it is impossible for mankind to make an absolutely correct decision. The reverse, which is to make an absolutely incorrect decision, is also impossible. This means so called “Evil” and “Good” decisions are out of the question, as even the most ethical decision will lead to negative consequences in some form. So then, what kind of decision would be deemed Correct? It is simply the decision that promotes the greatest amount of Balance, in a short term and in the long run. Our life is a balancing act and we react to consequences in a way to protect that balance. We also strive for a balance we think is the correct one to ourselves, and we tend to avoid anything that will cause an imbalance.
brown townyzing a situation and then acting to promote this balance is a challenge. Care must be exercised, and the consequences that may result from our actions must be taken into account. Its practice will enable everyone in a society to support each other and keep today’s society balanced. A good balance will also buffer against any effects that may promote disorder. Warfare is obviously extremely dangerous, as it promotes a very large amount of disorder. Warfare can cripple society, and thus should be avoided, even if the long term effects might promote balance. The short term effects may ultimately disintegrate that society before the long term balance sets itself in.
*** Finally, any system, including our own society, will eventually collapse into disorder. It is fundamental nature that everything expands into chaos. What keeps us from ultimately disintegrating, and even more so pushes us to move forward? What has kept such disorder from happening may sound quite preposterous, but there is an energy that feeds this system continuously and keeps such a collapse at bay. That energy comes primarily from an outside source, the sun. This sounds silly, I’ll confess, but it was an intriguing small bit of information I realized while pondering this theory. Of course, too much energy is dangerous as well, as energy in itself is quite disorderly. It is how we use the energy in our choices that will help us shape balance within ourselves and our society as well as lives.
January 4th, 2009
Julien ******
Yes my name is Julien. Feel free to laugh :P
