John, Main POV

The anecdote piece on Jed came early in the morning. I went to his house, and found the cops there. Neighbors said they had heard disturbances in the afternoon yesterday. The information on the manuscript told me exactly why Jed died. I tried asking around his campus, and got to the relevant people indicated in the manuscript. Some were hesitant to talk, but so far, everything matched up to what was written.

***

It was Monday.

I woke up, set my bed, brushed my teeth, washed up, and took my bag.

I went to the university.

It was eight-thirty. Professor Evans Altair came to the class. Evans greeted all of us, and waited for some seconds, before starting his class.

“We’ll now be talking about self-renaissance.” Professor Evans looked slightly more serious than usual. “I shall discuss it in terms of entitlement, the tragedy of the commons, and the flow state. So, that’s three notions to go by.”

Professor Evans motioned with his hand. “I want you to consider the following: People who most believe they are going along with the superior morality, along with the flow of things, will often not notice that the superior morality they think they are part of has turned more towards the instinctive desires of themselves or only specific individuals. People who most believe they are going according to their intuitions, and don’t take into consideration any advice, will often not notice that they have forgotten to take other people into consideration, and have imposed their own instinctive desires on others. The state of the current society is such that it has massively outsourced the morality of a lot of people who say they are oppressed and it is disguised as the 'matcher action', in the giver-taker narrative.

It is a form of echoism which is insidious in quite a variety of cases. This abandonment of particular morality has led to declines of the society which is almost impossible to miss. Particular morality may be understood as particular law and particular standards. Laws stand for guidance. Standards stand for the ideology behind the guidance. To make up for it, hedonism and consumerism in general are used by people, irrespective of health benefits or drawbacks.

If actions taken by an individual are seen as righteous by one superior morality the individual is seen as humble. If actions taken by an individual are seen as wrong by one superior morality, the individual is seen as arrogant. It is effective.

So, I will be exploring arrogance, in its necessity, as much as provide some solutions to the subdued morality. In essence, I believe that these solutions will lead you to respect other people more. So, that constitutes the main endeavor in today’s lecture, which I termed ‘self-renaissance’.

So. Entitlement. We have a person who visits a hotel and stays there for two days. After his two days are up, the person says that the hotel was a perfect shithole. That the food was bad, the room was dirty, the room service was creepy, the people visiting the hotel did not seem up to standard, and the price he paid for his stay was too absurd. The person is a customer. He is arrogant. If he can complain, that’s because he is arrogant. That’s because he, the customer, could possibly make something about the hotel better. At the same time, it was not the customer who built the hotel. Turns out the price was pretty reasonable for what he was getting. So, maybe he ought to learn some humility. However, he is the customer. The hotel owner relies on him to make his hotel better. The owner relies on the customer and other people who visit the hotel. It’s a healthy model for the economy, a healthy model for society - there will be people who will want more and people who will want less. It’s because of people like this customer that we are able to get things done, that we are able to restrain ourselves from doing some business which everyone will have to submit to."

"Of course, if standards are high enough, some customers may be denied entry to the hotel. Someone with this rude-customer stereotype is, at times, an evil savior telling the society that it can afford to have itself come out of its shell of protection, its shell of subdued moralities, particularly when particular law has no place. The decentralized mercantilism provides some leeway, which prevents complete echoism of people. It allows for the subdued moralities to speak at least in terms of value. The individuals with the subdued moralities may gain people who will voice out for them.

The problem lies in the notion of statism and anarchy - between monopolies and too much disorder. That is what I shall be discussing when I say ‘The tragedy of the commons’.

You might notice it quite often, but entitlement is inherent to journalists, to writers, to customers, to students - should they be in a value-based society.

It is particular morality and any prevailing superior morality which endow a person with entitlement. Mastery, based on particular morality and superior morality, is one aspect of the equation. There are decentralized gradations, to prevent outright totalitarianism.

That which is manifest, and therefore obvious, as in 'manifest flow', does not indicate any entitlement - a good case for atheists. No one is entitled to the womb. No one is entitled to the void. Entropy is a serious threat to entitlement, not life itself. People just differ in standards. In Sparta, babies would perhaps die.

In response to entropy, improvement is the driving factor behind us, as sentient beings, for we did develop a brain to seek food, did develop limbs towards that same endeavor, and did develop vaccines to save ourselves. The dichotomy entitlement lies on is 'entitlement and gratitude'. Having a subdued morality will not erase your particular standards, howevermuch voluntary blindness you engage in.

Slow down a lot, to decrease improvement, and avoid issues related to entitlement and gratitude. Entropy still means change.

Everyone has a morality. Everyone can get drunk, at their discretion.

Suppose you like the decor of a hotel. That would be great for you. If you don’t like it, it would also be great for you to move on to a place where you think you are more comfortable.

What is a particular morality? You want to manifest your being in your individual way in the world - that's what it is.

You manifest yourself by thinking and doing things.The fundamental nature of humans lies in exploration and mastery.

I shall explain that with reference to the story which was called ‘The tragedy of the commons’ Before that. Let’s take a break.”