[MD] Natural Law

[John Carl]

Steve:


> For example, have you (and I'll throw this out to everyone) ever used
> the MOQ to help make a decision where morality was in question, or
> have you only ever used it's authority to endorse what you already
> took to be right and condemn what you already took to be wrong?
>
>  I've had instances where something "felt" wrong or right, but I didn't
really understand why until the MoQ gave me an intellectual underpinning for
my feeling.

The example that springs most immediately to mind, was the time my friend
Bill and I went to hear Ken Kesey at a Writer's shindig in Nevada City, CA
and altho Kesey didn't show that time because he'd just suffered a stroke,
his good friend and stand-in, Ed McClanahan, came and read to us from Ken's
favorite story to tell to aspiring writers, that ends in the tag-line "fuck
you God".

Bill's pretty religious, so this bothered him a great deal.  But because of
the MoQ, I got the point of the story and was able to explain to Bill about
the morality of subsuming an intellectual pattern to a social one, and that
it wasn't really God who was being cursed, it was the devil.  Just like the
time when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil with offerings of
riches and fame and food, but the devil looked like an angel.

Well, I bought Ed's book - Famous People I have Known, a good book, btw -
and at the end of it, Ed explained the the meaning of  Kesey's story in the
same way as I'd explained to Bill.  I grasped the meaning because of the
MoQ,  Ed got it intuitively.  But when I read his unknowing confirmation of
my analysis, it felt good.  Like I was on to something  here.

Does the MoQ actually help us?  I'd say it depends on how twisted we are.
Taoists say there is nothing to be done but just follow the Natural Way.  I
agree.  If one does this from birth, then no intellectual formulation or
metaphysics is going to help.  But if we've been warped, then we need a fix.

Another analogy here.  Masanobu Fukuoka says it is completely unnecessary to
prune fruit trees.  If you just leave them to grow naturally, they'll
automatically grow straight and well-placed branches and put out lots of
fruit.  But if you mess with them, even a little, you'll have to keep them
pruned and tended for life.  I made a big mistake in messing with them when
I first moved to my place (I have a lot of fruit trees) and then I
compounded the mistake by NOT messing with them anymore, and I've lost a
couple, and had many problems with branches breaking and untidy forms.

So I guess the thing is, with our current situation, we're going to have to
work hard to do what comes Naturally.

Take care,

John