The Default Setting Is Love

It's an exciting and hopeful time to be alive.
The culture of freedom, democracy and human rights is the heart of the revolution of our era creating an advanced civilization, more intelligent, moral and beautiful. This reality is beyond the vision of modern philosophy based on the false premise that the default setting is hate because humans are fundamentally separate and evolved to compete against one another. But we aren’t and we didn’t.

Peace and prosperity are increasing as ever more people are allowed, enabled, inspired to make more decisions in their lives. People thinking more is moral and beautiful because our thoughts and feelings evolved to mix together in the living thinking system that is all minds connected, talents not concentrated but dispersed, every person incompetent on their own, each and every one needed to add variety to the whole, creating a category leap in intelligence, grace and power far beyond what could evolve to exist in any one beast, completely dependent on everyone getting along, intelligence and morality joined in a common endeavor. Together our destiny is to wonder and speculate, create and explore, seek truth and solve the riddles of the universe.

The challenge of our era is finding thousands of ways in complicated large scale modern life of unleashing human intelligence. Our kind of intelligence is a category leap, rising far beyond what could ever evolve to be the smartest, most wily, most dominant individual. Supermen and philosopher kings do not exist. If they did our world would be much less intelligent. The most striking thing an honest person sees in mirrors is the amazing ordinariness of uniqueness. This is what makes us human. Human morality evolved as a necessary component of intelligence, since to think together we must get along. Embracing the inherently moral nature of our heritage elevates the life of every individual, validating their own freedom, their hopes and dreams, when they welcome those of others. It is the essential beating heart of the institutions that are making a more intelligent world possible by decentralizing decision making. Democracy, including ever more people in decision making, is active, alive and intelligent and deserves respect for it. Freedom works, intelligence is beautiful because the default setting is love.

The dispersal of desire is the generator of our overwhelming intelligence, an amazingly complex and beautiful information system everywhere dense, consisting of all the millions of thoughts and feelings crowding the mind of every individual all day and night throughout the world. Everyone wants to live and find their own happiness. Minute by minute with every decision, dream, comment and smile we all add to the thinking going on.

Respect for the minds of ordinary people is respect for the intelligence of humanity is respect for your mind and mine.

We all have a responsibility to engage with the wonder and joy of life. Connections are everywhere, disconnection is illusion, ever greater mixing lending context, depth and meaning to the love enabling the human information system to dominate existence with warmth and beauty. So rise above superiority to live equal with all, awaken to see the light in every pair of eyes, each one a unique shining facet of the most intelligent entity ever to arise.

A book with a preface: Why the revolution of modern life is moral and intelligent.
And poems: It is beautiful.