Video text: Hello and welcome to LUTTAI. I am Tom and tomorrow I will be posting my first post with an external person in search of ideas or actions that will increase one's own well-being and/or the well-being of as many other humans and/or the well-being of as many other sentient beings as possible without hopefully causing harm to other sentient beings. In such actions I see true intelligence.
I am very much looking forward to this and intend to place a flag of the corresponding idea on this LUTTAI map after each new post with my opinion as to whether this idea or action is likely to increase the well-being, i.e. is intelligent, and if so, for whom. If I am unsure, then I will place the flag here by the question mark and if I think it is an idea that will cause more suffering than good, then I will place the flag here by the minus sign. But I don't expect anyone, not even you, to accept my judgment. On the contrary, I hope that everyone who wants to will draw up such a map for themselves and place the ideas or actions according to their own judgment and ask themselves which actions could increase the well-being on our planet or how we can act intelligently. And if you think that I am making the wrong decision, then I would be grateful if you would inform me so that I can reconsider my view.
I have therefore named the very first flag that I would like to place right here in the center "Open discussion - criticism as a gift - logic and reason - goal = greatest possible well-being of all sentient beings". I am of the opinion that none of us knows the absolute truth and that we probably never will, but that we will find the best solutions in an open discussion in search of good explanations using logic and reason. In doing so, we should be open to criticism, the better argument should count and we should never be too sure of our cause, but always in an effort to increase the well-being of sentient beings here on our earth.
Oder in den Worten von David Deutsch:
«Probleme sind zwar unvermeidbar, aber sie können durch fantasievolles, kritisches Denken, das nach guten Erklärungen strebt, gelöst werden. Das ist gute Philosophie und gute Wissenschaft.»
Eine Ansicht, welche ich hingegen nicht teile, besagt, dass alles relativ sei. Einerseits ist diese Aussage bereits ein Widerspruch in sich, da diese Aussage „alles ist relativ“ für sich selbst eine absolute Gültigkeit in Anspruch nimmt und deshalb sich selbst widerspricht. Ich denke aber, dass es darüber hinaus offensichtlich ist, dass es bessere, intelligentere und schlechtere, dümmere Wege gibt, um das Wohl auf unserer Erde zu vergrössern.
Or to put it in the words of Michael Schmidt-Salomon:
"As much as cultural memplexes may separate us from each other, it is human nature that connects us. We all need clean air to breathe, we all need food to maintain our metabolism. We all feel pain when we are hurt and joy when we can fulfill a long-cherished wish. We all laugh, cry, love, hope and grieve. In short, we all know the weal and woe. And this is precisely the reason why relativism fails in concrete life: it is not arbitrary which values and norms determine how people live together!" (Jenseits von Gut und Böse, p.191)
So in my opinion, a society in which human rights and animal rights exist is much better, or rather much more beneficial. Which is run democratically as opposed to under dictatorship. In which everyone can satisfy as many of their needs as possible, as if this is not the case. And much more. Not everything is relative, but in reality better or worse for the well-being of us humans and other sentient beings.
Of course, there will not be as obvious answers to many questions as in the examples just mentioned, but I would at least like to try to find some sensible, intelligent ideas and actions. And this in the knowledge, as Sam Harris writes in the book "the moral landscape", that there may well be several peaks or sensible solutions and paths. But we should firmly reject some ideas and real events that we currently believe are the cause of suffering and look for more beneficial, more intelligent alternatives and help them to be implemented.
I firmly believe that we humans are still a long way from reaching our potential to turn this world into a paradise on earth and that we still have a lot to do to live up to our name Homo Sapiens, the human being gifted with reason. But I actually think that we can achieve this. We humans are incredibly creative and have the wonderful ability of empathy. What's more, we have the opportunity to be better than we need to be thanks to our enormously broad repertoire of actions.
We can stand up for human rights and freedom of speech, or we can spread racism or cry out for censorship of our differing opinions.
We can try to invent laws or economic systems that distribute wealth more fairly, or we can look for loopholes or opportunities in the system to enrich ourselves personally, in the worst case at the expense of others.
We can campaign for democracy or we can help dictators come to power.
We can destroy the basis of our livelihood, nature, or we can join forces to expand sustainable farming methods and renewable energies.
We can continue to cram our animal relatives into factory farms and exploit them, or we can work to ensure that this form of farming is pushed back further and further and campaign for more intelligent coexistence.
We can blame each other or join hands and look for more sensible solutions together.
I hope that with LUTTAI, among other things, I will do my small part to increase the well-being of our planet in the knowledge that I am not perfect and that my ecological footprint is clearly too high. But I hope that I will find more and more sensible, intelligent ways to shape my actions.
And so I would like to conclude my contribution here with the most beautiful credo I know, it comes from Michael Schmidt-Salomon from his book "Hoffnung Mensch" (p.330) and goes as follows:
«I believe in people
The creators of art
And discoverers of unknown worlds.
I believe in evolution
Of knowledge and compassion
Der Weisheit und des Humors.
I believe in victory
Of the truth over the lie
Of knowledge over ignorance
Of fantasy over narrow-mindedness
And of compassion over violence.
I don't close my eyes
To the horrors of the past
The misery of the present
The challenges of the future
But I believe
That we will find better ways
To alleviate the suffering
To increase happiness
And to preserve life.
I believe in people
Who are the hope of the earth
Not for all eternity
But for millions of years
And if you have followed me this far, then I am very pleased and would like to offer you two of my most important views: Firstly, in my opinion, not a single human being is stupid, because from my point of view, only actions that diminish the well-being of sentient beings can be stupid. Secondly, every Human being is unique, has strengths as well as weaknesses. And we can use every strength and tolerate every weakness as long as it does not lead to the suffering of other sentient beings.
In this spirit, let us unite our strengths and try to create a better world together.
Let us try to act intelligently.
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