The Ethical State:
An Essay on Political Ethics
by John David Garcia
(Revised 1 February 2001)

CONTENTS

PREFACE
CHAPTER 1: THE ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND
CHAPTER 2: KEEPING WHAT WORKS
CHAPTER 3: AN ETHICAL GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER 4: HOW TO BEGIN
APPENDIX: SEE EDUCATION SYSTEM
GLOSSARY: SPECIFIC DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED IN TEXT
REFERENCES: NUMBERED REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Dedicated to my Good Friends, Anthony J. Parrotto and Alicia Herrejon

PREFACE

Every book I have ever written has had errors in it, sometimes serious, conceptual errors. I have tried to correct these errors in each of my subsequent books. But they have all continued to have errors, even after I thought I had corrected all the errors of all of my previous books. All my books, including this one, have errors, or are at best incomplete. I would never knowingly publish a book, which has errors known to me.

I have spent the last ten years trying to correct the errors in my last book, and have discovered that the only serious errors I could find were those of incompleteness, not of concept. This does not mean that it does not have conceptual errors. I simply could not find them. I hope that both CREATIVE TRANSFORMATION and POLITICAL ETHICS have solely errors of incompleteness, but remember that all paradigms are either false or, at best, incomplete.

The one thing that I have high confidence in, and which has remained constant in all my books, including this one, is the Evolutionary Ethic, which can be briefly summarized as follows:

The sole ultimate ethical goal in the universe that does not lead to its own contradiction is that we must always do our best to maximize creativity for everybody, without ever decreasing anyone's creativity, including our own.

A creative act is any act that increases truth for anyone without decreasing truth for anyone else, including ourselves.

Truth is information that, when we believe it, increases our ability to predict and control the total environment for ourselves, without decreasing this ability for anyone, including ourselves.

Falsehood is any information that, when we believe it, decreases anyone's ability to predict and control any part of the total environment, even if it increases this ability for someone, including ourselves.

We love persons if, and only if, we behave ethically toward them, by increasing their creativity, to the best of our ability, and never knowingly behave unethically toward them, by decreasing their creativity deliberately.

We should always do our best to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We have forgotten how to love if we do not value our own creativity and love ourselves.

Our neighbor, in this context, is any human being who shares the Evolutionary Ethic with us.

We should do our best to share the Evolutionary Ethic with everyone we meet, without being pushy and trying to impose our values on those who do not already share them; we will always fail if we do not love our neighbor, and try instead to impose our values; they must be freely chosen.

We should remain friendly, but invest the minimum of time interacting with people who seem to reject our values, always remaining open however to the possibility that they may change and become our friends in the future.

We should pursue a friendship with all those who seem to share our values and turn them into good friends.

A friend is anyone who loves us and whom we love in return.

A good friend is anyone whom we love at least as much as we love ourselves.

I would like to thank all the good friends I have had in my life. I am sorry that as a young man I did not yet know how to be your best friend. I now know better. Therefore, I thank all those whom I shall always regards as my good friends. I thank Kay, Marilyn J., Auda, Lloyd, Leib, Roberta, Pauline, Gloria H., Jackie, Sandra, Mary, Ralph, Marilyn K., Sydney K., Victor, Leticia, Peter, Yvonne, Guillermo, Juan, Susan, Robert, Joy, Michael H., Gloria S., Amit, Maggie, Isabel, Ben, Mike A., Galia, Luna, Irwin, Eva-Cecilia, Hebe, Rosario, Romulo, Vera-Aida, Salvador, Gaby, Javier, Lorena, Juan Carlos, Karina, Monica, Russell, Kimi, Bill, Antonio, Ann- Marie, and Ron. You have all contributed greatly to what I know, and what I am. Ron is the last good friend I have made. If it were not for him www.see.org would barely exist, and I may not have written this book. He has also created my website, www.see.org, for me and for you.

I also thank all those who read any of my books and still remained my friends. I am sorry for all the many friends who read one or more of my books and ceased to be my friends. I did the best I could to remain your friend. I would particularly like to thank my former friends, Harvey, Tom, Norman, Sumner, Phyllis, Humberto, George, Arthur, Prudenzia, Blair, Leon, Kate, Teresa, Ken, Eta, and Elizabeth. Although you may no longer consider yourselves my friends, I will always remain your friend.

I would like to thank all the friends, good and otherwise, I have had but whose friendship I did not recognize, and whose names I may have forgotten.

Special thanks go to Russell Brand, Bill Cassaday, and my editor Russell Becker for the many comments and suggestions they gave me about how to improve the early drafts of this book.

I would most of all like to thank those good friends I have had, who became my complementary pairs. You know who you are. I thank you without naming you, except for my beloved wife, who became my first complementary pair, my daughters, and one other.

A complementary pair is a good friend of the opposite sex, whom we shall always love more than we love our self. They need not love us any longer. But they loved us once, and we grew to love them more than ourselves, forever.

The person who is our complementary pair always contributes greatly to our ethical and creative development. My beloved wife, Bernice, was the first person with whom I formed a complementary pair, but I did not realize it until late in life. I also know now that our four daughters, Miriam, Karen, Jackie, and Laura were always complementary pairs with me, although I did not realize this until even later in my life.

I write this book for all the good friends I have had in life.

Among my best friends is the late Henri Lurié, who was the best friend I ever had, but I did not realize this until very late in life, after he died. I dedicate this book to one of the best friends I have ever had, and who still lives: my former publisher, Anthony J. Parrotto, who supported me, helped me clarify and better communicate my ideas, and published my books, even when he knew that he would almost certainly lose money on them. Tony, I dedicate this book to you, and to your lovely family. May you all continue in long life and great creativity.

Above all, I also dedicate this book, with the greatest gratitude, to my complementary pair, Alicia Herrejon, who has been my partner and collaborator since 1997. Although poor health, family obligations, national borders, and the vagaries of life, no longer allow us to work together closely, Alicia shall always be part of everything I create. I owe my life and this book to her.

John David Garcia
San Francisco, California
October, 2000

© John David Garcia, 2001, All rights Reserved.