The Ten Aversions

People value what they desire. Whether you actually call this a need, want, appetite, taste, preference, project, interest, goal or, indeed, desire itself, we can say here that what is valued is the target of the desire. This target being to have the world be a certain way rather than another and this can include the effects on others and their effects on you . When you do not get what you desire, your desire is thwarted - you do not value that. There are many ways this thwarting can occur but, when it involves the actions of others preventing the fulfillment of your desires, then question of ethics can come into play. And the same goes for your actions that prevent others having their desires fulfilled, whether you have done this accidentally or deliberately, directly or indirectly, knowingly or otherwise.

So some desires that you value in and of themselves can be quite detrimental to the values of others - and vice versa. And some of the means you use to achieve your desires can also be quite detrimental to the values of others - and vice versa. Would it not be better if we found desires and means to realize desires that, if possible, avoided such detrimental consequences? It would certainly be better for us if others took this into consideration. How are we to convince others of this? One way is that we attempt to do this ourselves - to set an example. However if others do not know we are doing this, will they care, let alone respond in kind? Surely it is in our interest to make this clear and to encourage others to do the same. The best result would be if we all did not want to have such detrimental desires and detrimental means to realize desires. That is for these options to not even occur, when deciding how to act and what to want. That is to have aversions to such things. To stop or keep those things from being or becoming true, or to make or keep these things false.

The Ten Aversions
The world is a big, complicated, messy affair and it would be useful if we had some general guidelines that could help in achieving this - to use both for ourselves and to guide others. Here is presented a tentative set of top ten aversions it would beneficial for us all to have.

1. An aversion to killing persons
2. An aversion to non-consenting violence
3. An aversion to theft
4. An aversion to sexual misconduct
5. An aversion to lying
6. An aversion to intolerance
7. An aversion to bigotry
8. An aversion to double standards
9. An aversion to corruption
10. An aversion to doing harm

These are not black and white rules or absolute laws but guidelines, to be used to evaluate and respond to others - to encourage those aversions where they are lacking through means such criticism and condemnation and, for them, to do the same to you. This does not mean there are situations where you are confronted with overcoming one or more of the above aversions, and have to make the most of what you can but, rather if everyone were to both coherently use these or similar aversions and consistently mutually reinforce each other, there would be far fewer situations where we would be so confronted in the first place. So having and encouraging these aversions is a preventive measure - a valuable means - that ends up with us encountering far fewer situations, directly and indirectly, where these aversions could be challenged.

Commentary
This provides the most concise amount of detail needed to clarify these aversions and avoid any misunderstandings the above list could cause.

1. An aversion to killing persons
A murder is an illegal killing, but a general aversion to killing persons encourages us to consider whether any killing is legal, that is under what circumstances this could be permitted. The default here would indicate that it is not, unless there is some good contrary argument. This is number one on the list to emphasize this is a means of last resort. Any who consider this option sooner than a last resort are condemnable and such condemnation would, hopefully, encourage more to consider this, at best, a last resort. This aversion is a guideline and it is not intended to resolve or impose solutions on problematic issues such as euthanasia, abortion or war, save whatever is resolved there, there should be clear standards in those domains.

2. An aversion to non-consenting violence
We all vary in our attraction to violence and when to apply it but our societies provides various safe outlets for this such as sports, games, martial arts, movies and so on. Anyone who has violent tendencies has no excuse not to use these legitimate outlets whether as a participator or spectator. An aversion to violence earns its place as the number two aversion here, to again emphasize that is another means of last resort to resolve disputes and manipulations between friends or strangers. Those who celebrate the actual use of violence and readily use the threat of violence are to be condemned, those who use it against those who condemn it, are to be doubly condemned. Still, like anything else here one needs to act sensibly as to when and how to condemn it. This is surely in itself a reason to encourage others to do the same and provide strength in numbers.

3. An aversion to theft
This is means not taking what is not yours to take. However this not only includes theft of one's property but also one's body and time. Theft of one's body means not only slavery but, still, there are over 5 million people in slavery today. An aversion here means not to profit or benefit from such slavery, or equivalent, and to condemn those who do. Now theft of time is in a sense milder but it does includes wasting one's time! Indeed needing to write these topics, including this post, is a result of too many people with mistaken and false views of morality, forcing a response from myself and others, which could be better devoted to dealing with real world and not manufactured problems - so all those who try to force their false solutions on us are guilty of wasting our time!

4. An aversion to sexual misconduct
This means to wanting to have honest and safe mutually consenting sex between adults. It is not up you to judge another for their preferences and choices of partner, only to encourage an aversion to any sexual misconduct.

5. An aversion to lying
There are situations were lying is not detrimental to our values - practical jokes, surprise parties and, arguably, to avoid hurts. Generally though we rely on not being lied to, to obtain reliable and true beliefs to best realize our values. Anyone who lies to us, directly or directly, can materially effect our values.

6. An aversion to intolerance
This very nicely deals withe dilemma of advocating tolerance - does this mean being tolerant of the intolerant? No. Encourage an aversion to intolerance in all. Anyone who is intolerant is to be condemned for lacking this aversion. Note that the primary purpose of this and all condemnations is to encourage these aversions, even if it initially fails with the target of the condemnation, it might succeed with others who hear the message and the more who spread this message, the more mutually reinforcing it is.

7. An aversion to bigotry
Bigotry means one assigning a person to a group that one has prejudged (usually) with negative attributes and assigning these negative attributes to that person. However much this has and still occurs there is no rational grounds for so doing. It is to be condemned and discouraged. On the other hand one who deliberately and voluntarily becomes a member of a group and so endorses negative attributes - such as contradicting the aversions listed here - can be condemned and this is not bigotry, since they, by joining, have chosen to identify with those negative values.

8. An aversion to double standards
This means imposing different standards on different individuals and groups of all forms, so one group preferentially benefits to the others detriment. And this applies to persons, organizations, state policies and evaluating states themselves. It applies to material needs, empirical standards and rational debate. Unless there is a good argument - which can only be made by initially assuming a single standard - it is not justified and should be condemned, most relevantly in the case of state policies, to help remove such double standards. That is to condemn those who benefit from such double standards, whether such a double standard directly affects you personally or not. If you do not, you are complicity endorsing the concept of double standards and another might be brought about that could bite you.

9. An aversion to corruption
There are many forms of corruption and this aversion is deliberately broad - from bribery to use of bad arguments - such as faith - to the indoctrination of minors.

10. An aversion to doing harm
This is the final catch all aversion. How do you know if you are doing harm in general? You need to ask are you thwarting other's values - their values and not yours - values that are not, in turn, thwarting anyone else's? That is where harm lies.

Epilogue
This is not a matter of my opinion or anyone else's. This is a tentative proposal of the top ten aversions it would be empirically beneficial for everyone to have and to mutually encourage in others. It is open to review and revision on the basis of which aversions best serve to increase value for everyone and that, in turn is determined by the material effects of having these aversion over not having these aversions. Finally it should be clear that this is a more honest and superior means of ethical guidance than dubious moral models that produce things like the Ten Commandments.