THE SIDE OF GOOD
...presented by the very same philosopher who is (soon to be)
searchable on the internet as "King-errant Even"
About Even:
There’s already a bio on another page; this one’s a bit more personal. This page is here in case you think you might ever want to talk to me or interact in any way in the future—that’s actually the reason. I’ve got my policies listed here (at the bottom), and I’ve just got a few warnings, you see, about what to expect from someone like myself who is kind of like—not exactly a hipster, but—a choicest-chooser of cultural norms from across the ages. I feel very much older than old people who are alive today, for they’re almost all locked into their own generation’s ideas and never made a point to finding out exactly how all the previous generations thought about things; few if any have judged acutely what to revive from the past as Western society has marched on at two steps forward and one step back every time. “BUT WHAT IF WE GATHER UP AND UNDO ALL OF THE ONE-STEPS-BACK?!! HOW MUCH MORE PROGRESS COULD WE MAKE?!!” I want to blare to the living. But I guess most people can’t handle that kind of thing—they just take their cues from those around them. Disappointing.
In any case, aside from my policies below, you’ll need to know that people misunderstand me a lot—all the time, actually—and one initial misunderstanding people have is that I’m culturally like an American… just because I grew up in America. This is a bizarre assumption—in my opinion—that people make about me. But once I’ve finally convinced people of the magnitude of my difference from them, there’s only a narrow ledge of tactical space for them to land on before they go further and come to view me as alien, too different, dangerously unknown. Frightening.
Look, it’s not frightening. I’m just different, ok? Meeting me is like meeting the lone inhabitant of El Dorado who dared to go abroad and visit you from out of that paradise—and here, by saying that, I’m kinda letting on that I’m more than just a choicest-chooser of old respective cultural babies thrown out with the bath waters of successive new generations: I’ve developed loads of new cultural ideas too, which, to you are as hidden as the land of El Dorado. Don’t you want to know about it instead of being afraid?
Assuming that you do, I’ll tell you that in my culture, there’s this important concept that keeps popping up, of “being in the running”. There’s this idea that, from a young age, you don’t know what you’ll end up being as your nature unfolds, but we (about ourselves) ought to assume that everyone’s in the running to start with, and that we, ourselves, could end up being the best kind of person. (For consider what would happen, for example, to a person’s development if they have that nature but yet don’t act from early on to feel the weight of their duty to figure out justice and all things that an ideal king ought!) As time goes on, individuals learn about themselves and soon they realize they’re not really in the running; but that’s just how it is—for almost everyone—until we’re left only with the heroes who are still in the running by the time they’re adults. And there are a number of ways of being ‘in the running’, for there are a number of runnings.
Do a hypothetical experiment in your mind. Suppose there were a child who is the greatest philosophical prodigy in history—a golden-child, if you will, who were to be great at understanding the whole scheme of things from the start of life, and whose skill would only rise from there. You don’t have to assume this child speaks well, nor is speedy, nor mathematical, nor gifted at music, nor has a good memory—you don’t even have to imagine they’re some kind of genius or prodigy at anything else in particular, because none of that really matters. Just philosophical ability. That means they’re able to take the facts of life and make sense of it all—even while still little—far better than those their age, and even better than adults who make the effort. The people of all lands might well refer to such a child as “the golden-child”, who can help the rest of humanity understand it all. And should this golden-child dedicate itself from the start to making sure its worldview is pure and free of corrupting influences (to try harder to have high standards about the important concepts than anyone you’ve ever seen), and to take the weight of the world upon his or her shoulders to eventually be able to stand as a testament and beacon of light for the world, and to knowingly do it from a young age since they discovered that it’s a requirement of their duty to do so for whoever it would be who is able to understand that they have a duty so young to fulfill it; then such a child would (if people knew it) be looked upon with hope and excitement by much of the world, to see what glorious conclusions they come to by adulthood, which will undoubtedly give direction and sustenance to all culture and to lift mankind more than anyone else could.
I mean, it’s me, but people just haven’t known it. I’m just describing myself here, really. There’s an appropriateness to how people ought to behave IF THEY KNEW the truth of my history. That’s plain enough to me, and of course they don’t know it, and weren’t there all my life to see my thoughts and choices; but if I ever act like… ya know… ‘if they only knew, then there’d be a certain appropriate response people should have toward me unlike how they have to others’ this is why that’s reasonable. I’m basically that golden-child, grown up. That’s what I did when I was little. That’s how I was.
My goal from the start was to improve the world, and I tried to be the first person to grow to adulthood without telling a lie, and, to do that, I—obviously—started trying before I ever told one. Ya know… to try to help change the world… you can read about this in my policies, which I abide by, and which require you to as well if we’re to interact. You can skip down the page to those now: here.
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Here are some bullet-point-type things about me, so you can know how I am...
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One thing you should probably understand is that I was basically socialized by Jehovah—raised to believe in it by parents who didn't always act ideally. Jehovah, being a better role model (one could argue), acted in some attractive ways, on the other hand; for example, the Bible basically has a 'tell don't show' problem, and it's supposed to be fine because it tells you how to interpret the characters, such as Jehovah. You're supposed to think he's the things the Bible says he is, and if you're not doing that, you're reading it wrong. You use your imagination to think that there might be something you're missing if it starts to seem to you that what's shown through description is other than how it's summarized. That's something I used to shake my head about when people would read the stories and come to different conclusions than the summarized characterizations in there. But that's an attractive thing to adopt: when I characterize myself in a way, or just act in some way; it's up to others to think that there's a reason for it that makes perfect sense—and if they don't see the reason, they're just missing something. Now, this is a nice way to be IF a person has integrity to characterize themselves right consistently, and IF they act appropriately, and IF they know the situation they're in. Almost everyone, however, learns—usually when they're kids—that they're not 'in the running' anymore for remaining a kind of person who can reliably tick those boxes, so it therefore wouldn't make sense for them to go around expecting the Jehovah-socialized treatment from others. A precious few, however, I'm sure, ARE mentally reliable enough for it, and when one proves themselves to be that, what a joy it is! So if I seem exuberant, or if I seem self-congratulatory, or if I seem a way at all that you may be suspicious of—it's probably because there's something to be exuberant about, or that I should be congratulated about, or whatever the case may be that is justified by the hidden truth. I'm not trying to start a cult or something—I'm saying it's applicable to more than just me: I'm sure there are more people who are steady and appropriate enough to live as though their integrity should allow them to be more open about their own good judgement of themselves, for it is a healthy thing in healthy, laudable people. (This is, after all, what it would look like if a person were UTTERLY in step with the Side of Good.)
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I’ve always thought it ideal to have all the benefits of age as well as those of youth, and, if you think about it, we may not be able to speed up the process of gaining those bestowed by age (however much we try to grasp onto the advice of sages as soon as we can), but we can still, on our own, hold on—if we try very hard—to the worldview-benefits stereotypically displayed by youth. I’m therefore a big fan of innocence—in the sense that it means both ‘free of guilt’ and ‘free of biases born of corrupt premises or those biases which systematically lead to them’. I’ve also always personally identified with being a little boy and an old man at the same time. The aforementioned is probably the reason.
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I’ve a lot of advice to give, but mainly to the very best people. My advice to those of mediocre moral fiber is to accept the norms which help the best people in society shine most—not the norms and ideas that are most commonly gravitated toward. And to the evil people, I have little to say, nor am I trying to impress them, nor should I, nor should any who are very good.
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“What seems true doesn’t matter; only what’s true matters”—this has been a mantra of mine, which, if you’re careful about your thoughts—as well as your thoughts of others’ thoughts—means we ought not jump to conclusions about what effects the mere seeming will ultimately have, and to thus focus on—and act on—what we know to be true. That, right there, is a mechanism for why those who have resolved to maintain innocence/flawlessness in their world-views by raising their standards for what they accept to be true would mostly ignore the impressions others take. Just focus on what’s true.
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Here’s another thing: I’m a huuuge Exceptionalist. (Think, “American Exceptionalism”, but more universally.) And if you think about it, anyone who’s going all out to maximize their innocence would be one too. Here’s why. The philosophical attitude of “exceptionalism” is when someone says that if there’s something that’s generally true (though not necessarily always true), they can accept that it’s the case generally, but when applying it to themselves or their own, they’d say that it’s better not to draw conclusions. So, if it comes to one’s own country (as American Exceptionalists have done with America) or one’s own person, then whatever’s true over in Europe, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be the case over here, with us, or with ‘me’. Known-false-instance-yet-true-generalities are handy rules of thumb, but if you’re maximizing innocence, you would shy away from using them to draw any important conclusions particularly about one’s own. If you start out only relying on the strongest premises, excluding the known-false-yet-true-generalities, then eventually the conclusions you’ll come to about everything will be much more robust and valid, and perhaps even more plentiful, eventually.
Is this what a golden-child would look like when grown up? Yah. Pretty much.
I haven't yet published any magna opera, but you can check out this little list of philosophies I've made public so far, and learn about the work I do on Logic.
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Here's something to give you heart: it turns out to be a kindness to allow another to be socially free; and this freeing way of being should be part of our culture, so I do my part as I assure you that I will allow you, without cynicism, to say what is true too.
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As for the “kingEven” thing in the address of the blog— that’s just me by nature, and I hope it doesn’t bug you, but I’m the kind of king that people want to see these days: a—quite frankly—adorable character who is part Monty Python’s version of King Arthur, part T. H. White’s King Pellinore, part Disney’s Merlin, and a bit of real-life Pericles. (We may ought to have thrown in someone young and innocent to the mix, but never mind.) Notice that 3 out of 4 of those characters are silly or ridiculous, which is fine — I don’t believe I’ve ever in my life claimed NOT to be ridiculous, and I think it’s fine by an audience too. …More than fine, these days, to be a silly king.
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Surely, you’ve heard of a “knight-errant”. … Well I would be described by “king-errant”, like King Pellinore (who forever quested — disheveled and impoverished — after the questing beast)! Perhaps “King-errant Even” should be my internet-searchable name.
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Two Policies
of mine
that you must adhere to if we're to communicate, listed below, can be summarized as:
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#1 I don't tell lies, so, ...ya know, know that;
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#2 I'll always tell you when I've done wrongly, so don't ever think I have unless I say I have.
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(I estimate that I've definitely earned these.)
Policy #1:
I don't tell lies--that's my policy. A policy is a unilateral choice of strategy that works in concert with another party taking an appropriate response or else future involvement is terminated; and in this case, my policy is that others think I don't tell lies. See how that can work out for both of us? But don't get the wrong impression--I have broken this policy: I've told 23 lies in my life so far, as far as I'm best able to count. However; I haven't told a lie for over 10 years. So I've gotten better.
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I think it's still valid for others to think I uphold my end, even though I failed early on, and most frequently earliest on--which is what I predicted when I was 4 years old. I'm sorry--and have ever been sorry--that I failed in keeping my end those 23 times (actually, I'm sorry about 22 of those 23), and I expect to do better.
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I concocted this strategy when I was 3 years old or so. I took a look around and decided that, not knowing what my strengths would be, the biggest impact I might have upon the world, to better it, would be to become the first person to live to adulthood who never once told a lie. If people knew such a one existed, then they'd have to treat strangers differently, wouldn't they? For if there were one like this, then maybe there were others who were close to it. But then I lied about having stolen gumballs not long afterward.
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Thinking about the effect it would have on my psychological development, and upon me socially, in the long run; I decided I ought to keep up my attempts regardless of the mistake; and I supposed that my control would increase as I grew, which turned out to be true.
#2:
I'll tell you if I've done wrongly if I have, and, in return, you assume I've not done wrongly if I haven't said I did. (That is, as long as it's relevant, and you're acting in good faith.) Do you see how this works for both of us? I love living my life according to this policy, but it's caused lots of problems for me when people don't also understand my rules, or they do but cynically don't keep up their side of the policy. When I blurt out revelations of my smallest faux pas, and others imagine these to be only the tips of the icebergs of ill; they get a wildly wrong idea. I love coming clean, but I didn't sign up for that. If you ever want to talk to me, you've got to realize that I talk in a different way.
Realize that we'd all be better off if people adopted this policy. It's a policy of The Side of Good, after all.
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[But be careful and braced if you're considering adopting this policy for your own life. Social media mobs are not known to respect the policies of those whom they attack, and the danger they pose is greater than mobs have for a long time.]
