Needs Must

That which is necessary for group survival is necessarily moral.

• As a morality is a group survival strategy, the above statement necessarily flows.  However, framed in this manner, it provides the perspective required to consider issues outside the confines of our existing morality.
• Consider ‘Is the genetic engineering of our children moral?’  Under our current morality, this is extremely dubious.
• However under this framing, the question is transformed to: ‘Will the genetic engineering of our children be necessary for our ongoing survival?’  If the answer is yes — which seems exceedingly likely — then the morality of such is obvious, and the only question is whether the will to survive is sufficient to overcome the quantum step from our current morality to that which is required.
• Necessary is however a very strong word. We can substitute others:

That which is beneficial to group survival is beneficially moral.

• Inherently that which will be beneficial to group survival is difficult to predict.  In general, heading in a single direction with purpose and consistency over a period of generations is more significant than making the correct assessment of what morality is required.
• Both  the potential and inherent cost of changing vectors from the current path is high when the current vector is eucivic.  The potential cost is bound up in the consideration that the new vector may not be as effective as the old one.  The inherent cost is derived from the mathematical observation that the distance from zero of any vector is greatest along its own direction.  If you change direction, you necessarily take a loss in the amount of order you have built up.
• Thus an established civilisation will find it difficult to change its morality while it is on the up— even when it clearly needs to — because the costs are too high.
• Note the pattern of civilisations rising and falling in similar generational time-frames throughout history.  It’s hard to leave that arc.
• In the current dyscivic environment, the costs are inherently low. However, the Cathedral takes a dim view of those pursuing eucivic moralities, and imposes costs — often terminal costs — upon them. Thus new moralities are inhibited despite the clear need for them to develop.
• Here note the historic pattern of new moralities and the empires that flow from them developing in small, remote places before bursting forth to conquer the decaying remains of that which was once worthy.
• Thus this point in time sees new — and old — moralities positioning themselves passively for the point where the old empire is in such decay that it no longer possesses the capacity to sustain itself.  Some of these are internal, some are external. For the survival of the people of the west, somewhere, an new internal morality — and preferably a number of them—needs to be strong enough to assert its primacy against the external foes it or they will face when the decay in the Cathedral becomes too great.
• Emergent moralities have thus almost all shaped by the need to survive within an environment that is artificially imposed by a dyscivic empire.

• Finally, a little corollary to ponder:

That which is necessary for individual survival is not necessarily moral.