II. Cultural Organization: Manners, Ethics, Morals, Religion – The Conformity Economy (Inclusion / Ostracization)
Ethics: The Invisible Cost Economy
Freedom to attempt to establish a network of norms: restraints on action enforced by inclusion or exclusion in the group.
Inclusion in the group reduces risk and increases opportunity.
Manners, Ethics and Morals are terms for different segments of a spectrum for controlling costs of a group. Manners reduce friction and demonstrate predictability, class and quality. Display of good manners means access to more people who may grant one more opportunities. Each use of good manners requires some form of discipline. Each act of discipline is a cost to the individual, and a contribution to the cultural institutions. Each abuse of manners is a lack of discipline and a withdrawal from the cultural institutions. Manners must have a witness who can observe the demonstration of one’s discipline. In a demonstration of manners, there is no asymmetry of information. Each equally can observe the other.
Ethics on the other hand is a study in asymmetry. An action is ethical or not, because of shared lack of knowledge of the future, and asymmetry of knowledge between individuals. If one person has deep knowledge and the other shallow of the same exchange, ethical treatment requires that the person with greater knowledge act as if the other person is possessed of the same knowledge, and each is responsible for protecting the other from harm.
Ethical systems generally occupy some portion of a spectrum from the criminal to the charitable.
a) The Criminal Ethic: I take what I can, without consent.
a) The Bazaar Ethic: whatever I can get away with in voluntary exchange.
b) The Warrior Ethic: whatever will not make the other or unhappy.
c) The Christian Ethic: What is equally beneficial for both parties.
d) The Charitable Ethic: As long as the other person prospers, I do not care what my outcome is.
Then most ethical systems generally consist of intra-group and extra-group criteria, that might not be the same. Within and across family, clan, tribe, culture, religion, race, each culture varies in its adherence to its ethical standards. Furthermore,
Moral systems imply total asymmetry of knowledge. Actions fall under moral criteria whenever the cost of seizing an opportunity for one’s benefit either risks, or places an external cost, and a high cost, on others, and in particular, others with no recourse.
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- Coercion: Prosthelytization, Status depreciation. Opportunity deprivation. Ostracization.
Opposition: Competition.. Departure (absorption of costs), tolerance (absorption of costs),
Cost: Absorption of opportunity costs. Loss of opportunity.
Perception and Calculation:
Properties:
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- Coercion:
Opposition:
Cost:
Perception and Calculation:
- Coercion:
Opposition: freedom of expression, freedom from norms.
Cost: Effort in exchange for lower friction of interaction, and increase in opportunity.
Perception and Calculation:
C.1) Cultural Freedom: (Choice and Opposition) The freedom to employ myths, norms and rituals, and to coerce, convert, and compete against other groups using different norms myths and rituals (opportunity cost payments required of members).
Coercion:
Opposition: The freedom to choose among norms, or to evade adoption of norms.
Cost:
Perception and Calculation:
C.2) Freedom of Norms (Competition and Choice) Participate in sets of norms, to select norms.
C.3) Religion (Cultural Law And Institutionalized Conformity)
R.1) Religious Freedom: Freedom to create institutions, rituals, and codes for the purpose of establishing the criteria of inclusion and exclusion (ostracization). Including Freedom to choose to participate in religious factions, and freedom to evade participation in factions. Religions create opportunity monopolies and attempt to disallow competition of forgone opportunity costs. Competing religions are competitions of opportunities and opportunity costs. Evading participation is an attempt to obtain opportunities at a discount.
