Fatal Conceit

“Reformers” by Dana Schutz

reason does not inform ethics
ethics moving as it does
along lanes between
instinct and thought
a spontaneous product
of action not intellect
living experience
spurns being codified
carries no truck with
philosophic design
moral systems rely
on assumptions
about human nature
assumptions refuted by
anthropological history

vying contentions
between man and tribe
between tribe and society
spur an experimentation
a trial-and-error approach
to morality tweaks
right and wrong as they
trundle through time
these contentions need
balance on ethical fulcra
a faceoff of equalized truths
to preserve vital justice
for persons and groups
lest the frail social contract
collapses in ungodly dust

some would say
that describes the world
passing from us
to our children
our fatal conceit
that we better than
all those good souls
who preceded us
finally got it all right

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“Our moral traditions developed concurrently with our reason, not as its product.”                                                                                            – Friedrich Hayek