Every living being exists upon a Spectrum of Consciousness, and every day of their lives every animal may rise or fall along that Spectrum. Nonhuman beings can develop empathy and harmony with other species. Humans can overcome our many bigotries and create great beauty — even bacteria can change their behavior from parasitic to symbiotic. It is up to each of us whether we choose to be a virus that spreads misery or a salve which enhances wellbeing, but if a living being exists within a Darwinian food chain — if its children are starving, or it is freezing to death — it will not be able to focus on any higher forms of Existence.

Nobody wants to talk philosophy on an empty stomach: however, if a living being is lifted Up out of the Darwinian survival struggle and given food, shelter, and shown Compassion — then they will be in a position to elevate both themselves and those around them.

Every person you have ever met (every single one), no matter how cruel, petty, or daft they may have seemed then, has the potential to become different and grow to become Better. Every person has the potential to one day make a worthy contribution to the Project of Civilization. I know it is sometimes tempting to write some people off (or even most people) as “lost causes,” or to detest the willfully ignorant and to despise the sadists. “How dare they, in this Age of Information, resist enlightenment by seeking out and championing harmful falsehoods?” But, this type of animosity towards other beings solves exactly Nothing. Even killing one’s enemies is just a stop-gap: more will come. What we need is a Real solution.

Humans are social animals. We flock together and invest our very selves into tribal identities of morally meaningless trivialities like the color of our skins, the shape of our genitals, or the places of our birth. All of these attributes are objectively random accidents over which we never had any control, so why should they matter?

It is not what you are, but what you Do that is of true consequence.

People cannot directly change biology, but we CAN choose to embrace better values. It is such behavioral change which then guides our biological evolution.

A change in your genes begins with a change in your behavior, and a change in your behavior begins with a Choice. Most people that have been indoctrinated (usually from childhood) into an ideological cult will fight to the death to protect that illusory identity. They mistakenly conflate themSelves with their ingroup affiliation. Groups are general, but people are Individuals, yet the more people invest emotionally, financially, and socially into the assumption that their tribalism is correct — the more the free-thinking Individual disappears and the more the dogmatic, “Us vs. Them” group-think mentality takes over. That mantra of “We are always right” turns into “They deserve no compassion.”

For superstitious ideologies adoring an allegedly perfect Dear Leader (be it a terrestrial narcissist or a celestial sky monster), people may sacrifice possessions, relationships, and even lives in the Real World for the mere promise of glory post-mortem. Whatever the virtues of the After-life or Honor may be, people are being cynically manipulated out of enjoying this life and may even be depriving it from others. This behavior is unacceptable.

Beliefs are not “harmless”; what we Believe dictates what we Do. Beliefs are not “private”. People with harmful beliefs indoctrinate their children and pass Laws which affect us All. It is, therefore, imperative to Believe as many True and Good things as possible. Luckily, every day is another opportunity to make a New choice — to Decide to become Better Beings.

Religious Fatalists and Mechanistic Determinants alike may argue against the truth of this genetic-level free-will state, and that reaction is odd is it not? Why would people who have convinced themselves that they have no real Motive-Force even care to argue at all? The reality, whether one prefers the spiritual or evolutionary view, is that both science and spirituality point to the same solution: to survive, We must Change. Change is paradoxically the one true universal constant. That which does not adapt gets recycled back through the process of entropy to become something new and (hopefully) more resilient. Therefore, whichever your preferred perspective on the reality of our shared Existence, we can choose to grow as living, loving, ethical beings.

The petty cruelty of a zero-sum survival struggle is a primitive method of existence. It is a vicious, self-defeating cycle of barbarism in which no one ultimately triumphs and in which life itself may not even be worth the trouble. This selfish paradigm must be rejected in order for lasting progress to be made. Our core values should instead be replaced by something like what the Buddhists call “Great Compassion,” which is the factual realization that living beings are all connected and should at least, for that reason alone, be Kind to each other. Empathy-Understanding is a type of intelligence and, like all skills, can be honed to betterment. Do not, for example, resign yourself to a world of ineffable enemies; Instead, perceive every person as someone we have simply not yet convinced to become Better. See things from their perspective and find the words to reach out to them in terms that they can understand. If your values are true, your position will endure scrutiny.

Cruelty is a contagion — a Sickness that makes more of itself, but We can be the Cure. We can “get better.”

Every woman relegated to being a broodmare is a potential scientist. Every man conscripted to being a foot soldier is a potential artist. Every child locked away from knowledge is a potential philosopher. It is, therefore, the Highest Imperative that We, as an Earth Civilization, raise Up as many beings along the Spectrum of Consciousness as we possibly can. Not only is this the ethically responsible thing to do, but it is also simply logical to utilize our Full potential.

Bigotry, it turns out, is a very costly indulgence. Not only does it cause the needless suffering of one group, which is morally repugnant, but also pragmatically it causes the other group to never gain the true benefits of our full contributions. Just as spirituality and science are often looking at the same world, so too are ethics and logic, which need not be at cross-purposes. The path forward for civilization is not yet more zero-sum scarcity competition, but the far more advanced positive-sum cooperation for abundance. To accomplish this feat, we must cultivate Empathy with all other beings and adopt values of empirical well-being. For example, the purpose of Morality should be to maximize the subjective well-being (and to minimize the suffering) of all living beings. Beyond that, we should agree on an objectively moral baseline Consensus reality such as the Declaration of Universal Human (and Nonhuman) Rights.

Nothing is lost by erring on the side of caution and assuming consciousness in all things unless proven otherwise, thereby expanding our Circle of Compassion to infinity. We should embrace the best available evidence and be always willing to update our understanding of the world as better evidence emerges. In this way, we can prevent dogmatism and stagnation. “Enlightenment” turns out to be a never-ending quest, and therein lies the beauty. It is Never “too late” to improve ourselves. We must be ever searching for ways to become Better Beings so Be Better today.