Th Moral Miror, part I

Skeches for th Moral Miror, esaes riten on th eev of th cuming gloebal wor.

Preeambl

If U hapen to be standing between too mirors, as ofen hapens in barbershops, and qiet freeqently in amuezment parks, U can see a neerly infinit regreshon of reflekshons if th mirors ar properly aliend. This infinit regreshon of imejes is to me whot moest striekingly carrakteriezes th diferenss between moral thinking and praktikal thinking. When U hav too statistikaly independent moral aejents, too independent hueman miends, eech wun trieing to think of whot th uther wun is thinking, it wil theeoretikaly leed to an analogus sichuaeshon. Nacheraly, th limitaeshons of th hueman miend do not permit us to continue with this thaut prosess for too long: I can sae, “I am thinking about U, U ar thinking about me, I am thinking about th fakt that U ar thinking about me, U ar thinking about th fakt that I am thinking about U, and so on and so forth, but if we tri to continue in liek maner our thauts will tend to get mudld, or at leest “tanggld up”, and it becums mentaly exausting if we tri to extend th prosess for mor than a fue steps, but it is hiely instruktiv to think about this prosess, particuelarly in liet of artifishal intelijenss, which cuud conseevably taek th prosess much further.

Nevertheles, th hueman ability to deel with th “problem of uther miends” is whot enaebls us to engaej in all diferent kiends of soeshal interakshon, particuelarly when it cums to th prinsipal diferenss between th muechual teling of troo staetments (or at leest staetments that wun or boeth partys beleev to be troo staetments), th teling of lies, whaer wun party deliberatly tries to deseev th uther, and th muechual engaejment in maekbeleev, whaer all partys involvd ar awaer that thae ar teling eech uther meer fikshons, so that everywun noes not to taek th staetments literaly (at leest not outsied th confiens of a given “shaerd fantasy spaess”).

In th furst caess, when boeth partys ar engaejd in muechual troothteling, we can demonstraet th sichuaeshon bi saeing “I am teling th trooth, U ar teling th trooth, I beleev that U ar teling th trooth, U beleev that I am teling th trooth, I beleev that U beleev I am teling th trooth, U beleev that I beleev that U ar teling th trooth…” and so on and so forth.

In cartoons we mae reprezent whot peepl ar thinking bi drawing tieny cloudliek or bublliek surkls, within which we mae atempt to draw imejes whaerin is depikted whot eech party to a conversaeshon is thinking, regardles of whether that thinking acuratly reflekts whot th uther party is thinking or whether it reflekts “exturnal” reality.

To atempt to go further, we wuud wont to reprezent whot wun purson thinks th uther purson is thinking, and then in that caess we wuud hav to draw surkls within surkls, and if we wonted to depikt whot wun purson thinks anuther purson thinks that that furst purson is thinking (or, qiet simply, eny uther purson), we wuud be forst to draw three surkls within eech uther, but cleerly we cuud not draw meny mor nested surkls within eech uther without it becuming confuezing, and moest comik strips or grafik novels wuud not permit that much deetael to be vizibl in th furst plaess.

At this point we miet wont to uez graf theeory to creaet grafs with diferent conekting liens insted of embeded surkls, and to reprezent th respektiv trooth or faulsity of staetments maed bi diferent partys (or thauts entertaend bi thees respektiv partys when not vurbaly exprest) eether bi diferent texchers or culors of thees liens (e.g. doted liens for unspoeken thauts vursus solid liens for spoeken staetments, and th culor blak for supoezedly troothful staetments with th culor red for deliberat lies — with, let’s sae, yelo for faulss staetments that mae be sinseerly beleevd, and green for staetments and thauts relaeting to maekbeleev, joeks, shared fikshons, etc.) Thees trust-relaeshonship diagrams wuud thaerfor corespond to “Feynman dieagrams” in nuecliar fiziks, and thae wuud form a solid baesis for th development of moral sieenss.

Normaly, if we wer deeling with a furst-yeer corss in trust-relaeshonship theeory, we wuud expound on diferent kiends of lies, muechual misunderstandings, and th liek, and draw strukchers for thees trust relaeshonships (or broeken trust relaeshonships, as th caess mae be), but in this particuelar esae I am going to cut this preeambl short bi jumping ahed to a discushon of th wor in th Gaaza strip and it’s relevanss to trust-relaeshonship theeory. However, befor I do that, thaer is wun sinister kiend of lie that needs to be adrest furst, and that is th sadistik lie, which is akchualy mor of a meta-lie, sinss it relaets to our jeneral ability to tel th diferenss between a lie and th trooth.

A sadistik lie mae not be a lie at all, but it’s purpos is to convinss its audi’enss (i.e. th intended viktim) that thae dezurv to be lied to! (or, at th verry leest, that thae do not dezurv to be toeld th trooth, th hoel trooth, and nuthing but th trooth, acording to th comon leegal diktim). It can be compaerd to th baterd wief sindroem, whaer an abuesiv partner — statistikaly mor ofen a man — consinses his viktim that she dezurvs to be beeten. Wun mae eeven speek of a Stockholm sindroem varieety of a sadistik lie, whaerin th viktims not oenly dezurv to be lied to, but ar insieted to start employing sadistik lies themselvs, and to teech uthers to do th saem (in uther wurds, chaen lies, chaen reakshon lies, and metastasiezing lies).

A sadistik lie ofen taeks th form of a lie that’s so preposterus and absurd that th viktim qiet ofen is not shuur that she hurd corektly, and has to pinch herself several tiems. That is th hoel purpos of a sadistik lie, tho, in that it’s a form of gaslieting, in that it is intended to get th viktim to dout his or her sanity! Aulso noen as th deer in th hedliet sindroem, whaer th deer is froezen with feer or unsurtenty and unaebl to desied which wae to run.

Adolf Hitler seems to hav dun sumthing similar with his noeshon of th big lie, wun that caches peepl toetaly bi serpriez and puuts them “off gard”, but th moest noetorius expoenent of sadistik lies todae, and aulmoest surtenly wun of th moest noetorius seerial liears in history — a man hoo desperatly needs to go to sum kiend of re-hab to lurn how to stop lieing, if oenly that wer posibl — is our oen Donald Trump, but enuf sed of him at this point, becauz riet now we must deel with th caess of Benjamin Netanyahu and his brootal wor on children, and on reality…

Thaer ar now mor than 8 bilyon peepl on this planet, and it is saef to sae that thaer ar no longger eny iesolaeted groops of indivijuals hoo hav absolootly no contakt with members of th “outsied” wurld. Not everywun mae be conekted to th internet, but moest peepl ar oenly a dae’s hiek or bus ried awae from a vilej whaer sumwun has a compueter with aksess to th internet. Whot this meens is that vurchualy everybudy is caepabl of being awaer of whot is going on in th Gaaza strip, in Lebanon, and elswhaer (aultho to be troo, meny peepl hav enuf pursonal ishoos of thaer oen that thae can il aford to sacrifiess much tiem wurying or being consurnd about whot is going on at sum uther jeeografik co-ordinat on th planet).

However, for thoes hoo do hav th tiem and th inclinaeshon to keep up with th nues, hoo can folo th maejor internashonal braudcasting netwurks such as th BBC or Al Jazeera, and hoo hav aksess to soeshal netwurking survises such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok, it is abundantly cleer that thaer is a maejor jenosied going on riet now on our planet, a horrifik jenosied, wun that we hav not seen th lieks of sinss Wurld Wor Too. Wun whaer all th laws of wor hav bin sadistikaly vieolaeted, inclooding all th Jeneeva convenshons and all uenivursal prinsipls of hueman riets, not to menshon every conseevabl moral prinsipl that members of th jeenus homo hav foloed or bin awaer of oever th last ten thouzand yeers.

Th diferenss is, that this tiem, unliek duuring th peeriod of th Jooish Hoelocaust in conekshon with Wurld Wor Too and th so-cauld “Thurd Riek”, this tiem th hoel wurld noes presiesly whot is going on and can no longger claem ignoranss. Thae cannot be foold bi Hitler having a smaul Jooish boy plae a vieolin outsied of a “model” consentraeshon camp. This tiem we all see th crusht, torn, and smutherd bodys of smaul children on a daely baesis, and eeven in reeal tiem, not just in stael nues reeals at a smaul toun sinema. Children th wurld oever, as yung as six yeers oeld (or however oeld thae hav to be in order to comprehend whot thae ar seeing) ar seeing uther children thaer oen aej being kild riet befor thaer oen ies, at eny our of th dae or niet, every dae of th week, every dae of th munth, eny munth of th yeer, with indicaeshons that this daely slauter mae yet continue for several mor yeers.

Not oenly that, but in meny caeses thees children th wurld oever can akchualy tauk to thees Palestinian children, and in reeal tiem, and get to noe them a bit, at leest for a fue daes, or a fue weeks, or a fue munths befor thae ar kild. It is liek being aebl to go bak in tiem and being aebl to tauk to Anne Frank and her sister befor thae wer sent off to th consentraeshon camp to die.

But this tiem, thaer is not just wun Anne Frank, not just ten of them, but hundreds or eeven thouzands of thees Palestinian Anne Franks. On Instagram aloen thaer ar duzens of Palestinian blogers, th best noen of them having oever 100,000 or 200,000 foloeers. Not all of thees blogers fizikaly liv in th Gaaza strip, of corss; sum mae liv in Canada or Nue Zeeland, but thae all hav frends and relativs in a jenosiedal sacrifiess zoen, and meny can pursonaly naem duzens of viktims of this inhueman conflikt.

Meny Palestinian kids speek Inglish qiet wel, and meny ar lurning Amerrican Inglish so thae can get to noe Amerrican kids. Wun of th moest hart-rending seens I hav yet seen from this wor is when we wer all permited to cach a glimps of a torn children’s scool textbuuk with th wurds “Palestinian Inglish” cleerly printed on th cuver in th rubish of a bomd-out rezidenshal complex, wun that mae eezily hav bin as much as twelv storys hie, and with duzens of familys with scool-aej children in them, moest of them now murderd, purmanently maemd, or at leest excrooshiaetingly traumatiezd and emoeshonaly scard for lief.

Whot I fiend remarkabl about this is that sumhow, in this tieny impoverisht aanclaev, thaer wuz this aantraprenuur, moest liekly a Palestinian himself, hoo conseevd of seting up a smaul publishing cumpany, sumhow got th funds to get it started, and then got th eqipment to start printing and biending buuks, a later-dae Balzac, just so that Palestinian children and yung peepl wuud hav a chanss to lurn Inglish, and moest liekly Amerrican Inglish, and yet we Amerricans ar kiling them for wonting to speek our langgwej, becauz bi freely giving arms and muny to Izra’el so that th later naeshon can kil thees children in our naem, we hav as much blud on our hands and feet as if we had direktly kild thees children ourselvs (and it duzn’t mater that sum of us Amerricans mae not akchualy be paeing taxes at this tiem, sinss we ar all wun naeshon, wun singguelar criminal enterpriez, hoo must now prae in th spirit of Jon Lenon, particuelarly in th spirit of his song “Imajin”, that thaer is “no heven, abuv us oenly ski”, becauz if thaer wer such a plaess then acording to convenshonal Crischan theeolojy th oposit plaess wuud shuurly hav to exist, and sinss all of us Amerricans hoo hav reecht th aej of reezon hav purmanently relinqisht and extingwisht all chanses of ataening th former plaess after we die, we mae oenly pas th river of Stix with a wun-wae tiket to th later plaess, as we ar all aksesorys to murder, as shuurly as if we had given a puur man a nief or a gun — or given him th muny to purchas it himself — whiel noeing all th whiel that his soel intent in gaening aksess to this weapon wuz so that he cuud kil his wief…we must now all prae that thaer is no heven.)

At this point we hav all th ingredi’ents needed to understand th “moral miror”: At th tiem of th Jooish Hoelocaust moest of th wurld wuz larjly unawaer of th troo naecher of th event. Thaer wer stil meny peepls on th planet hoo wer not exactly “fuuly integraeted” with whot is comonly laebld “Western Sosieety” or “Western Sivilizaeshon” at th tiem, so we can pas oever them without ishoo. As for everywun elss, until th liberaeshon of th consentraeshon camps at th end of Wurld Wor Too, when th wurld fienaly got to see the fuul horror of th emashiaeted corpses stakt up liek logs, and then thaer fienal dispoezal in mas graevs whaer graeny nues reels sho traktors and buuldoezers shuveling them into heeps, whiel thaer wer plenty of indicaeshons and hints that sumthing horribl wuz going on, meny peepl in Jurmany itself cuud onestly claem that thae wer unawaer of whot wuz hapening sinss Hitler’s Naatsy rezheem kept tiet staet controel of all nues meedia, and it wuz ileegal to lisen to foren raedio braudcasts. Thaerfor, indivijual viktims such as Anne Frank and her sister went to thaer deths beleeving that moest of th wurld wuz unawaer of thaer pliet, and thae wuud hav bin larjy corekt in that asesment.

In our dae and aej, however, th sichuaeshon is compleetly diferent. Th Gaaza strip masaker is beyond dout th moest compleetly and presiesly docuemented mas murder in hueman history, and we aulredy hav far mor foetografik evidenss of it than for th entier Jooish Hoelocaust. This is not serpriezing at all, of corss, considering th unimajinabl advanses in foetografik teknolojy that separaet th too historikal events. Moroever, th interaktiv posibilitys permited bi soeshal netwurking survises such as Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Zoom, and so on meen that we in efekt get to see Anne Frank die oever and oever agen as ofen as we liek, and we can chat with her and get to noe her in reeal tiem along th wae. This is trooly th point in th history of comuenicaeshon teknolojy whaer th Hoelocaust meets Groundhog dae 😱.

With th aded faktor of th moral miror, we noe that thaer ar 8 bilyon hueman beings obzurving th Gaaza strip hoelocaust from afar whiel th mor than 2 milyon inhabitants of th Gaaza strip noe fuul wel that th “outsied wurld” is woching them die and esenshaly doing nuthing, henss a discustingly pervurted “cand hunt” or “wun-sieded gladiatorial combat😡‼

However, th mental, siecolojikal, and moral reality that we ar faesing is infinitly wurss wunss we reealiez that th 2 milyon inhabitants of th Gaaza strip ar presiesly awaer that we 8 bilyon uther inhabitants of th gloeb ar awaer that we ar in turn fuuly cognizant of whot th inhabitants of th Gaaza strip themselvs ar thinking, which then leeds to th infinit regreshon of thaut whaerin we outsieders noe that th Palestinians noe that we outsieders noe that th Palestinians noe…that a reeal tiem hoelocaust is aktivly involving th hoel planet in th ies of God, whiel for thoes of us hoo ar aethyists we wuud simply sae that th hoel planet is caut up in this hoelocaust in a spirichual senss!

Thaerfor, we do not hav just wun Hoelocaust but an infinit regreshon of nested Hoelocausts, wun insied th uther, as in a Rushan Matroshka dol whaer eech sukseeding dol has a smauler dol insied of it 😱😰😱😰😱😰😱…

This compleets th furst sekshon of Th Moral Miror.