The Ethic of Imitation & Future Benefit

In thinking about what makes a right or wrong ethic, principle or lifestyle, I had this thought.  What if determining good or bad conduct is looked at through the lens of imitation and exportation?  I’ve been kicking this around.  I remember a passage of scripture that says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.”  Or another passage that came to mind was in Jesus own words, “a servant is not greater than his master, imitate me!”  That’s a paraphrase of course.  But anyone who has read the passage in John 13 understands the point.  Imitating someone could be a way to see if a conduct is correct or not, couldn’t it?  Especially if it is exported onto others!

Now let’s take your own life.  What if everyone on the planet imitated your life?  What would the ramifications be?  Contemplate it.  What if it really were to happen?   It’s an interesting idea for sure.  Take everyone on the planet doing what you do.  Your morality is now there morality.  Your actions are there’s too!  They way you eat, work, play & even have sex!  Now the question I ask myself is, “If everyone lived the way I lived, how would the world look?”

There is another complicated idea that I have in this regard.  Is this a good way for us to weigh our own ethics?  I mean this.  Would this be a great way for us to find out if we are living a narcissistic life or not?  Narcissism is one of those things that we do not even know we are living in it.  Our selfishness does not let us know we are selfish.  But in answering some personal questions and having some thought maybe we could get to the answer of our own condition.

Many of us think of the future. There are some that have dedicated their entire lives to thinking of the future generations.  This is all done, so that we can have a future existence that is better.  There is a physical benefit to using the ethic of helping today.   Another way to say it is this;  We can use our future generations benefit as a way for us to measure if what we are doing today is right or wrong.

Now I want to bring this idea into our sexuality.  This will be sensitive no doubt as most things self reflective are.  But don’t let that scare us.  All that can happen to us in doing this is understand ourselves a bit more.   Though I understand that might not be your goal.

So let me run some quick scenarios:

If I were polygamous, I could ask, “What if everyone were polygamous?”  What would the world look like if that were the case?  Eveone male had more than one wife.  Could the earth support such a thing?  What would the population of the earth be after 100 years?  200 years?  What kind of natural resources would be needed for such a population?  What would the lives of women & children be like?

What if If everyone in the world were in a monogamous homosexual relationship?  What would the world look like in 100 years?  200 years?  Would the the planet benefit from such a thing?  What would human life look like in the future?

What if everyone were in monogamous heterosexual relationships?

What if everyone cheated on there spouse like me?

What if everyone had sex the way I do?

What if everyone loved the way I loved?

What if people treated women like I do?

What if people treated men like you do?

What if everyone used porn, prostitute or sex-bot instead of being with a beloved like me?

What if your sex, sexuality and sensuality were practiced by every other human in the same exact way?  What would our world be like?

It is the ethic of future benefit.  What if my ethical life could be measured and judged, right or wrong, on the answer to these questions.  And in turn would I change my life accordingly?  This is quite the challenge as I have mentioned.  I think the reason is because when we take our personal lives, especially our sexual ownership, and put it on the rest of the world, it is more easy to see a potential danger.  This could in turn move us to conviction that maybe what we are doing is quite narcissistic.  And this is no fun, especially because we are narcissistic!  If there is one thing our self desires does not desire, it is to think we are wrong in those desires.  And in order to self protect we could do many things to avoid such a attempt to rid ourselves of our desires.  Selfishness loves one thing…Selfishness.  I am simply suggesting a way for us to look and see if we are being such a person.

This is a theory of mine.  It might be something others have wrote about or lectured on before, and certainly there is nothing new under the sun.  But in my mind, it makes somewhat sense.  Do I live my life in a way that if all others did exactly what I did, with the same motives, attitudes and actions; how would the world be?

This just might be what Jesus is doing in us who are called his children.  He is making us like him the Bible tells us.  What if the world were just like Jesus as he is now?  Maybe this is the measure of Jesus love for the world?  He is making the world like Him!  In loving the world, he first lives a life to be imitated, then does the work of transforming us into that image.  Transformation.  This is the message of the Bible.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.  2nd Corinthians 3:18

Could we say that the measure of one’s love for others is in the investment in ones future benefit?  You save your money for your kids education, right?  It is a measure of your love for them.  Now take the ethic and move it into your personal life!  Would you sacrifice your personal life for the sake of the future generations?  Could you change your personal life so as to invest in the future of the world?   This is the ethic of future benefit and the ethic of imitation.