Seven Moral Rules Found Around The (Beaver) World (Wellness Wednesday)

[00:00:00]It's wellness Wednesday with Timberborn.

[00:00:03]Yes, we're going to do more Timberborn today. It's a bit of a finagle to set up the clip and the sound is a little off the top, but we will try it. Today we are talking about social moral principles, ethics, but it's a particular study because every time I do a video like this, the harassers like Christmas, well, this is beaver. I'm a beaver harasser. Um, but this is an interesting study, well article.

[00:00:33]Anthropologists at the University of Oxford back in 2019, early 2019, so precoid found seven moral rules found all around the world. And so I figured it would be cute to do awesome beaver society building and then do this um talk on what they are. Uh, we'll see how this goes. Technically, I am still getting used to doing the video over gameplay. Um, bear with me. Help support this channel. Become a monthly patron.

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[00:01:32]It should kick in anytime now. It's a little goofy off the top. Yeah. Okay. I see audio a little bit. The music should start. There we go. Okay. I think let's hope there's audio. If there's no audio Oh, there it is. Okay, we have it now.

[00:01:49]All right. So, the seven moral principles around the world and my ey line. No, my ey line is fine. Okay. So, the seven moral principles around the world while I build beaver paradise that sounded wrong are help your family, help your group, return favors, be brave, defer to superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect others property. I will repeat that again. Help your family. Help your group return favors, be brave, defer to superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect others property. These were all found in a survey of 60 cultures from around the world in every single culture. I know what you're saying. Most societies do not actually uphold these values, right?

[00:02:44]There's lip service going on obviously but this is based in an anthropological principle called morality is cooperation and [snorts] kin selection. That means you know you tend to put your family first then you put your immediate group non-family and then it's everybody else. And because humans are social critters, this mutualism it, you know, this the strength and safety and numbers principle is the ideal for [music] societies that function. Now this is when people start going ah but capitalism capitalism is just and and honestly this is all it is. It is just the private ownership of capital. There is nothing inherently greedy about capitalism that isn't found in well socialism on paper societies where the government just gobbles up all the money, distributes it corruptly, and leaves nothing for the average person.

[00:03:51]It isn't the economic model. It's the falling down of these seven cooperative principles that you know basically make up the idea of the common good that everybody loves to talk about when they're on the receiving end of when it comes to actually give stuff. People can get a little weird there and you know then it's the but capitalism but again capitalism functioning capitalism does fulfill this model fair product for a fair price right that's divide resources fairly return favors right uh help your group respect each other's property the respect each other's property is pretty key to capitalism. And this is not to touch off any capitalist versus socialist debate. I am not, you know, all capitalist all the time. I I believe in in government programs. I'm Canadian.

[00:04:57]My god, we'll defend our healthcare system to the death. Um, but you know, it's it's just let's have words mean things again, please. Like really, please. uh a corrupt socialist system is no better than a corrupt capitalist system. In some ways, it's worse because then the government controls absolutely everything about our lives. It it's the corruption and the unequal distribution that uh cause the problems and obviously that violates you know the divide resources fairly principle. Now, how you define fairly, that's what philosophers and politicians fight about all the time. That that's the challenge with this stuff that how we define fairness really complicates agreement on things like define divide resources fairly.

[00:06:04][music] the defer to superiors principle. That that's an interesting one because conservatives on paper tend to [music] support hierarchies, firm hierarchies more than liberals do, but you know on paper and in practice are very different things, right? But I do think that these premises, there's a reason that help your family, help your group, return favors, be brave, defer to superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect other people's property. I think there's a reason they are about as close to universal cooperative ethics as we can get because like I said um humans function best in groups. Um and therefore anything that strengthens the group is seen as morally good. Now the challenge we have in you know the plentiful resources of the developed world is how to balance our individualism and our individual >> [music] >> identity from um balance it against group dynamics and what's good for the group. And you know when you start studying anthropology, you get a little separated from the rest of the world because you realize how different not just the idea of self is around the world. Uh you know um countries that put the family name first. That's a powerful signifier of how they view the self. It's more of a collective self. But then you get into what defines family and kinship structure is, you know, different around the world. It functions various ways for various societies.

[00:08:21]Anybody that tells you that one of those is [music] morally superior to another, I've never found a way to actually defend that. when you really dig down a lot of the time, um, people, you know, there it's more common to have like one man, multiple wives, and one woman, multiple husbands, but all of that tends to be about division of resources.

[00:08:53]And while there can be, you know, some not great results from every family structure, um, including ones where, you know, any any woman who is of a certain generation is your aunt, every man is your uncle, um, you know, there's pros and cons to all of them.

[00:09:16]We're not here to moralize that way. But the idea that I read this and again this is con these are values that are considered morally good around the world and we're talking places like um it says Korea I'm assuming that's South Korea um the Messiah the go um the Tarumara.

[00:09:42]So they went real deep. The BMBA I mean they went real deep. link in the description box if you if you want to read the article and you know the the summary and then the article it's linked to. But the fact that we [ __ ] this up so much really might explain the misery that people experience on a near daily basis because you know obviously there's a lot of issues with family especially now that the great wealth transfer is going on and people smell money and behave badly.

[00:10:25]uh their idea of fair division of resources is I should get all of it cuz I'm the best, right? I don't know many people who aren't dealing with something involved of um a distate of a distate and estate of a recently deceased person. See, I put deceased and estate together and it's miserable. It really is. you see people at their absolute worst. There's a reason people who practice that kind of law make all the monies. Um, helping your family does not mean ruining yourself for your family. It does not mean you're the only one that's helping everybody else. And the the balance of how that works is what tends to get manipulated by narcissistic parents and you know people with other issues. Uh similar with helping the group.

[00:11:30]Group dynamics are the thing, non-family group dynamics are the thing that I personally think broke [music] down while, you know, conservatives were screaming about the nuclear family dissolving. I I really do think that those extended circles of friends are the thing we got really bad at managing.

[00:11:57]And what ends up happening is, you know, too often one bad apple spoils a whole barrel. And it doesn't have to happen that way. Our skills in this regard have just eroded from lack of practice for various reasons. We can get it back.

[00:12:20]But I think a big way to get this back and this is the one that made me decide to do this returning of favors. I know this sounds like that festivist episode of Seinfeld, but you know, hear me out.

[00:12:35]The number of people I hear from who say I give so much to other people and I don't get nearly as much back. That idea of reciprocity is really tenuous right now. And I do think that if we valued reciprocity more both ways, right? So if you're giving and giving and giving to people and they're giving you nothing back, turning off the tap can be really miserable at first because you know the person who's used to getting so much is like all of a sudden you're awful. You're not the person I thought you were. You're actually mean and cruel and you do it on purpose and but that's just because they're so used to getting [ __ ] free and easy, right? So the the idea that that would stop that feels unfair to them, you know, fair division of resources. Yeah.

[00:13:44]Because it's a change. But you know, the the truth is and and you get into some messy parts of philosophy here because philosophy just messed up altruism really badly. You know, was it a goose compt that was like, "Oh, you're not truly an altruist if you let someone come in and murder your wife if if you have to murder the guy to prevent it because who's saying his life is worth more than than hers?" Well, no. Human beings value family first for a reason.

[00:14:25]It was an utterly ridiculous bit of philosophy that stuck. And a lot of people get very warped by college courses on altruism because they either get that in left-wing courses or they [gasps] they get some really reductive version of objectivism either for or against. If if there was one bit of understanding that would benefit from a cleanup in philosophy, it's iron. Oh god, not the time today.

[00:15:03]Um but that you know the returning of favors and being brave I do think are linked. Obviously the divide resources fairly is a part of returning favors as well. But it's hard to say to somebody, "Look, you're not holding up your end."

[00:15:27][snorts] Because somebody who is used to not doing it, especially if they're an adult, it's much easier to correct in kids because people can just say to a kid like, "Hey, you're not allowed to do that." And it sticks. But with adults, the idea that, you know, you have to say to somebody, "Hey, you're not pulling your weight."

[00:15:48]People have not been taught how to do that. They're filled with a deep shame because they've never actually been shown an example of accountability.

[00:16:00]And so when it comes time to sort of owning that, yeah, you've been slacking, like you know, obviously there are kinder ways to do it than others. But the most expedient way is to just blow up, you know, take your ball and go home or whatever metaphor you want to use.

[00:16:21]Say the other person's a whole bunch of horrible abomin, you know, you weren't pulling your weight. Um, and I find that the people that are the absolute worst for this are the first to rub other people's noses in times they were struggling. And there is a difference between going through a legitimately bad time and just being lazy. And unfortunately, I think that culture confuses those two a lot. you know, the fundamental attribution error of, oh, it's not that there's an external reason for the sudden drop in performance. They're just lazy. People don't tend to just become lazy. They don't tend to suddenly be selfish when they're not. They don't suddenly become inconsiderate when they're not.

[00:17:14]Something external happened. And that alone, it's very strange how people tend to assume that you've changed or you were always bad, you bad, bad bad person bad instead of, oh, this is somebody who's really struggling right now. And that reciprocity, that returning of favors and that bravery, that that's where I think it really falls down, right?

[00:17:43]Because would you want to be assumed that you're just being lazy instead of that you're going through a bad time?

[00:17:48]No. So why would you assume that of another person? Well then then it's that and it is a form of bravery to trust. It is you know could they screw you over?

[00:17:59]Could they be lying to you? Yes. But what's worse, you know, trust but verify. Like assume no ill intent until you absolutely have to. But just, you know, hedge things a little bit just to be careful. Um, you know, or just assume the person has just turned and now they're terrible and no good and you scream from the rafters and you dox them and you lie about them all the time cuz they lied about you so it's okay and then it turns out you're wrong.

[00:18:29]What's worse, right? And yet the impulse control required to let's just watch and wait, right? like let's let's assume no ill will. Let's assume nobody meant anything bad, but we'll just, you know, we'll watch a little closer. That takes some selfont control. And for some reason culturally, we've just lost the enjoyment of self-control.

[00:19:04]Everybody has to be out there going, I am everything of this category, right? I miss the days where we didn't know every political opinion of major celebrities, right? Like if someone was a singer, that's all we really needed to know. We we didn't need to know their views on Gaza. I don't care about Taylor Swift's views on Gaza. I don't care about Selena Gomez's views on Gaza. I am in the minority with this stuff, you know, the obsessiveness which people judge the lives of these people. And it does hit more women than men. Topic for another time. But you know, when you ask someone like, would you want to be judged like that? Would you want um you know, would you want your every move, every utterance to be scrutinized that intensely? I hear, well, I don't have millions of dollars or I'm not famous. I mean, this is part of the job.

[00:20:14]That doesn't actually answer the question I asked. And it's very telling because obviously, would you want to be scrutinized every moment you're breathing for the slightest mistake or problematic utterance? No. No, you wouldn't. It's a pretty easy question, right? But it takes a certain amount of bravery to admit that sure doing the gossiping, some people find that fun. Being on the receiving end of that gossip, um, not so much. And you only really get an empathy for that when you've been on the receiving end negatively. Right? The next one, so to recap, help your family, help your group, return favors, be bra, be brave, defer to superiors, is another one that has really broken down.

[00:21:16]And this has been going on for a while, but it's definitely accelerated.

[00:21:23]The the tech bros are an example of people who got a lot of power at a very early age. And you know, a lot of them are my generation, Gen X. It everybody's like, there won't be a Gen X president.

[00:21:37]They're a soccer generation. Ah, they just bypassed the presidency. They founded Silicon Valley and now they just control not just, you know, the president, but a bunch of senators and a bunch of Congress people a piece.

[00:21:56]And is that great? No. Um, do any of these guys have the wisdom to have that kind of power and influence? Well, listen to them speak for 5 minutes. Not really. Um, the one I was super disappointed in was I mean, we knew that Bill Gates had shitty business practices with Microsoft, so I shouldn't see that's me. I'm like, okay, you can be one kind of scumbag and screw your employers. But you know, Jeffrey Epstein and the problem is I believe Bill Gates when he said, you know, I knew he was convicted of something, but I didn't look too hard into it because that tier of people, they do a lot of really shitty stuff.

[00:22:56]And so everybody's got some legal problem going on. And and it is true that people just I didn't think anything of it.

[00:23:10]It sounds just bizarre cuz it is right.

[00:23:13]It's morally bankrupt. But that is how that echelon of society functions. And I do think that that oh, you get rich enough and powerful enough, you can do whatever you want.

[00:23:27]I'd be interested to see what the resource inequality would be in in some of these cultures um around the world.

[00:23:39]Um, but yes, the difference to superiors is a challenging one because there's a whole lot of you're not my parent going around.

[00:23:53]One of the things that has changed a lot in my lifetime [music] is expectations of management.

[00:24:04]When I was coming up in dance, it was normal to get screamed at if you made a mistake. Like just reamed in front of everybody. Now, obviously screaming at 9-year-old girls is is a choice, but we swung the other way to now you you have to so soft pedal every directive like could could you just be a a little more like ju just just a little you know you're doing great you're great be because this whole self-esteem culture just people I guess got so damaged ed by being screamed at that way that we overcorrected and now you can't tell people to just do something from a position of leadership and have people listen. It is like pulling teeth as a manager to be like, "Guys, I really need everybody please do. You have to beg because you can't tell anybody to do anything anymore."

[00:25:16][music] And people blame this on millennials and it is not. I have found this in all age groups. People just don't have enough respect for themselves to learn how to really be respectfully part of uh a group that has both lateral and hierarchical relationships because there's this idea that oh the boss just shits on everybody and they shouldn't. I mean, managers that that have that um style are not good managers. I heard from somebody this week that everybody in their location where they work, the manager wrote up everybody. And I'm sitting here thinking, well, if it's everyone, there's an organizational problem. It isn't everybody if it's just people slacking, right? It it's the same thing I was talking about before and as a manager you have to be brave enough to know when it's a failure of leadership not failure to follow right and I do think the bravery defer to superiors it's interesting that respect like mutual respect isn't there but maybe I mean respect other's property but respect person's personhood not there maybe That's divide resources fairly. I don't know. But yes, people's stuff is their stuff. You don't get preferably to touch their stuff. And [music] uh I I very much enjoy in Timberborn to put little I don't know if I've done it yet in this playthrough, but put little small warehouses around the like campfires and the rooftop patios cuz it's like oh look snack bars like I'm like the little beaver uh you know entrepreneur small business right and we do live in a society where it is so difficult to run a small business because resource allocation is not divided fairly.

[00:27:36]Um, small and medium-sized businesses have such a hard time of it lately because everything is these giant corpse and I almost said corpse like dead body, not inaccurate in a lot of ways metaphorically. Uh because you know the economies of scale have made it too expensive for anyone else to do anything and that means new good ideas are not coming forward as much as you know would benefit society cooperatively. You know, it's violating the principle of mutualism and dividing resources fairly. Again, individual mileage may vary of what fairness means.

[00:28:28]There's this great Sesame Street uh sketch where Ernie and Bert were trying to get equal amounts of cherries and it was on a scale and so Ernie just kept eating all the cherries cuz the scales weren't in balance until there was one one cherry each aside and Ernie thought that was completely fair. Look, he's sharing with Bert and of course Bert gets hilariously pissed off and well and seen. [snorts] Um but that is what some people think about fair resource division and that's not it. You know fair does not mean entirely equal. Some people will always have more than others but it benefits a society. This is just sense again this is not capitalist. This is not socialist. This is just pragmatism that if everyone has a minimum standard of living, everyone benefits and it is cheaper to do that at scale. Meaning everybody who has the means gives in some so that everybody can do reasonably well. And that has just been so bastardized. But well, I'm a job creator and all that stuff. That that zoom in was terrible. I was like, wow, the mouse wheel went bonkers. My uh center mouse wheel doesn't work properly. So yeah, there'll be a few of those. Um but um yeah the divide resources fairly thing I think does undermine all the others as as m as well as the respect others property like those two really work in tandem right you got to divide resources fairly but you got to respect other people's property and that's what both wings of populism have violated with their storming of the barricades.

[00:30:35]Um, you know, with the the college uh quote unquote protesters where they smashed up historic libraries um for demands that they they didn't end up getting. Um, and then of course January 7th. Um it it is very important to continue to advocate for what's fair to you while still going like let's not destroy while we try to build. And yes, a riot is a language of the unheard. Yes. But I do think that that has been overused um of late by people who are using that concept conveniently.

[00:31:32]Um I do think that if if we sit with these seven moral rules found all around the world.

[00:31:45]Um and and really do try [snorts] to seek a balance in them. You know, help your family does not mean obey your family. Help your group does not mean suffer yourself for the group. Returning favors, that's pretty easy. Um, easy, but people don't do it. Be brave. Simple concept, very difficult to execute because it involves being afraid and doing it anyway. Deferring to superiors does not mean obeying them without question. The word is defer. obviously divide resources fairly recognizing that no not everybody is going to get the same amount but there should be enough for everyone and we can function in a capitalist system and pay people fairly.

[00:32:32]That's what functioning capitalism is supposed to be. Yeah. Um, and then also respect other people's property because for a lot of people their space, their possessions, that is their dignity. And, you know, with with the stuff that's going on in gaming, I I think that's sort of what is being touched on is that, you know, somebody's world gets smaller and smaller. They've been retreating more and more and now that's being encroached on in ways that may make sense but still feel bad. Um, so there we go. Hope you enjoyed this. I had enough Timberborn footage. Yay.

[00:33:19]Again, link is in the description box below if you want to look this up and read more about it. Um, but it wasn't the exclusive, you know, the West is better at it than anybody else. Um, help support this channel. Become a monthly patron. patreon.com/lenna kay or buy a onetime lean care session for someone who can use it but can't afford it. coffee.com.

[00:33:47]Sign up for a lean care session yourself. If you want to practice discussion, if you want to go from surviving to thriving, start that project. maybe start that small business you're looking for. Even if it's just a YouTube or Twitch channel, you know, it's time to be brave and get some of those resources yourself for what you're good at. Um, thanks for watching and be well.