My Left Hand Path
I think that for the most part the thing that distinguishes the Left Hand Path from the Right Hand Path is that Left Handed people tend to view higher powers as being impartial forces that merely exist. Right Handed people on the other hand, tend to view higher powers as having motives and causes either in favor or against individuals. The realization that there isn't any benevolent god or goddess up there watching over us, and that guardian angels are just parts of ourselves communicating with that concious portion that calls itself I is one of the things that sets the Left Hand apart from the Right Hand. The realization that morality is nothing more than a shared set of beliefs about what is accceptable behavior and is not written in stone or enforced by some all knowing being who will sit in judgement of you in some afterlife is another thing that I believe sets the Left Hand apart from the Right Hand. A Left hander, realizes that there is no such thing as right and wrong per-se. Instead, they understand that any codes of honor, or beliefs about correct behavior are more a function of balancing our own natural selfishness, with compromise with others. Calling something right or wrong, just or injust is merely a shortcut to enable you to quickly assess whether a potential or factual set of behaviors is something that will allow you to be included with the particular subset of people on this planet you wish to call friend. Conflict and fighting consume an incredible amount of personal and often material resources, whereas co-operation tends to make life easier. The old saying that there is strength in numbers seems to be true, but blind faith in that strength can be a persons' undoing. Left handers are continually assessing whether or not compromise with particular individuals is profitable. Mature left handers realize that it is possible to manipulate things so that the profit is all one sided, but that doing so eventually leads to a loss of co-operation and can lead to conflict. I believe that a mature left hander ultimately comes to the realization that for the most part co-operation is benefical and that conflict is generally not beneficial except in circumstances where uncompromising people prevent the left hander from obtaining that which they need or desire. A key factor in the success of co-operation is the notion of trust or integrity. Integrity is the personal choice to behave in a manner that promotes and rewards trust from others. This is different than deceipt which is the personal choice to behave in a manner that promotes, but then punishes trust from others. We behave with integrity for selfish reasons. In particular we realize that co-operation is more beneficial than conflict and since true co-operation cannot exist without trust, it is very much to our benefit to do what we can to promote trust in others and to ensure that trust is long lasting. Behaviors such as doing what you say you are going to do, trying whenever possible to render statements that are as close to truth as your understanding of the truth will allow you to make, not harming others who have done no harm to you are all things that promote trust and tend to get folded into a mature left hander's personal system of ethics. The key is that left handers adopt these ethics not because there is some god or goddess up there who will reward them if they do and/or punish them if they don't, they adopt these ethics because they understand that ultimately it will benefit them to do so. A Left hander understands that for co-operation to work, all persons must agree to co-operate; any thing else is coersion. Typicaly Left handers don't take kindly to being coerced. Agreements and contracts establish the boundaries of mutually agreed upon co-operation. One of the aspects of the mythical Devil, is that he is always trying to make a deal. Left handers are always trying to make deals, because the only way to have true co-operation is to make deals. Ambiguous expectations about what is expected from each party in an agreement tend to promote conflict, and conflict depletes a person's energy usually without the benefit of allowing that person to obtain their desires. Right handers tend to adopt pre-ordained ethical systems, and rules. This works as long as the right handers are co-operating with people who have similar underlying ethical systems. Whenever there is an ambiguous understanding by co-operating parties regarding what is expected of them in the "contract", they merely consult the shared ethical system for a resolution. Left handers tend to favor their freedom, and so there is no implicit assumption regarding a shared ethical system that can be used to resolve ambiguities in understanding between co-operating parties. Instead Left handers tend to favor more explicitly worded contracts tailored to suit the needs or desires of each co-operating individual. Right handers have trouble working with people (even other Right handers) who do not subscribe to the same or similar pre-ordained ethical system. The global conflicts and religious wars of past and present attest to this statement. Left handers generally only run into trouble when they fail to unambigously word their agreements. However, a mature Left hander takes responsibility for this upon themselves and does not blame the other party because of a personal failure to read the fine print. They simply try to learn from their mistakes and do better next time. A Left hander understands that the only real consequence of breaking an agreement is that it will tend to obliterate trust with the party you opted to make the agreement with in the first place. A secondary effect of breaking agreements is that any onlookers to the breach of agreement will be less likely to trust the offending party. Mature Left handers realize that these are pretty severe consequences, because they understand the value of trust in forging future mutally beneficial agreements with others. If however, a Left hander finds themselves in the position that they have made an agreement which has more negative consequences than positive ones, then failure to abide by the agreement is not inherrently wrong, but they need to understand the consequences to trust that breaking agreements will have. Often Left handers will find themselves in a position where they are trying to co-operate with a Right hander who does not share their ethical system. Often times the Right hander will not have a great tolerance for detail when it comes to forming the agreement and try as the Left hander might, they are unable to get the Right hander to understand the terms of the agreement. Often the Right hander will presume that their personal ethical system trumps any terms of the agreement that they have made with the Left hander. It is for this reason that the wise Left hander doesn't put a great deal of trust in the word of a Right hander. Agreements between Left handers and Right handers often result in unpleasant conflicts in addition to the normal loss of trust. This is because the Right hander often feels entitled or even compelled by virtue of the fact that they are adhering to their own system of ethics, to coerce the Left hander into doing the same. Right handers have strange notions (from the Left hander's perspective) on how to go about fulfilling their desires. Whereas a Left hander is prone to honest negotiation of win/win scenarios, the Right hand path is apparently more convoluted. A successful Right hander will pick an ethical system that enables them to profit by convincing others that folliwng this system is the "right thing to do". It matters little if by following this system of ethics the others benefit or not so long as they abide by the Right hander's rules. Often the system of ethics will be accompanied by a mythical system which promises a reward in the "afterlife" for making sacrifices to the leaders of the Right hand system here and now. Thus there are two kinds of Right handers: leaders, and followers. Leaders of Right hand systems consider the Left hander's independence a threat to their own well being. What if the sheep leave the flock is often the hidden fear among such leaders. Followers in the Right handed systems are often just as bad. They are often jealous of the Left hander's independence and don't feel that it is fair that they should have to sacrifice while the Left hander doesn't "pull his weight" so to speak. Seldom are the Followers in a Right handed system smart enough to realize that they could be just as independent if they would only throw off the chains that bind them. If they were that smart chances are they would make themselves leaders in their system and reap the benefits thereof. Some tips for forming agreements from one left hander to another one: 1. Make sure your agreement has an exit clause, just in case you realize that you misunderstood the cost/benefit of keeping the agreement. Without an exit clause, you have no means to end the agreement without destroying trust. 2. Understand all of the terms of your agreement and what you must do in order to abide by them. 3. Make sure you understand the other party's obligations and that you have some way to verify that they have kept their end of the bargain. 4. Avoid negotiating agreements at gunpoint (and it doesn't really matter which way the barrel of the gun is facing.) These are not agreements and are liable to result in all sorts of unpleasant suprises for you down the road especially when it is you toward whom the gun is pointing. Just ask the American Indians of the 19th century. If you find that you have no way out of such a situation, then go ahead and negotiate the best deal you can, cross your fingers and look for a way to get the upper hand later on so that you have leverage to obliterate your opressor, or re-negotate terms that are to your liking. 5. Never make an agreement where you are giving up more than you are gaining. Also avoid letting others enter into agreements where they loose more than they gain. Failure to do this will have the tendency to cause either you or the other person to want to break the agreement. The key words here are "Win/Win scenario". 6. Avoid making deals with Right handers, they are terrible negotiators and not likely to stick to the agreement. This is particularly true if the agreement runs afoul of their pre-ordained system of ethics. It is interesting that the mythical devil (a Right hand symbol) of the archetypal left hander, is often depicted making deals with right handers who fail to attend to the fine print of the agreement or leave enough ambiguity in their wording that undesired results ensue from abiding by the agreement. Right handers tend to label this figure as evil, whereas left handers tend to consider this figure instructive and try to learn from the mistakes made by the unwitting rubes in the story.
I think that for the most part the thing that distinguishes the Left Hand Path from the Right Hand Path is that Left Handed people tend to view higher powers as being impartial forces that merely exist. Right Handed people on the other hand, tend to view higher powers as having motives and causes either in favor or against individuals. The realization that there isn't any benevolent god or goddess up there watching over us, and that guardian angels are just parts of ourselves communicating with that concious portion that calls itself I is one of the things that sets the Left Hand apart from the Right Hand. The realization that morality is nothing more than a shared set of beliefs about what is accceptable behavior and is not written in stone or enforced by some all knowing being who will sit in judgement of you in some afterlife is another thing that I believe sets the Left Hand apart from the Right Hand. A Left hander, realizes that there is no such thing as right and wrong per-se. Instead, they understand that any codes of honor, or beliefs about correct behavior are more a function of balancing our own natural selfishness, with compromise with others. Calling something right or wrong, just or injust is merely a shortcut to enable you to quickly assess whether a potential or factual set of behaviors is something that will allow you to be included with the particular subset of people on this planet you wish to call friend. Conflict and fighting consume an incredible amount of personal and often material resources, whereas co-operation tends to make life easier. The old saying that there is strength in numbers seems to be true, but blind faith in that strength can be a persons' undoing. Left handers are continually assessing whether or not compromise with particular individuals is profitable. Mature left handers realize that it is possible to manipulate things so that the profit is all one sided, but that doing so eventually leads to a loss of co-operation and can lead to conflict. I believe that a mature left hander ultimately comes to the realization that for the most part co-operation is benefical and that conflict is generally not beneficial except in circumstances where uncompromising people prevent the left hander from obtaining that which they need or desire. A key factor in the success of co-operation is the notion of trust or integrity. Integrity is the personal choice to behave in a manner that promotes and rewards trust from others. This is different than deceipt which is the personal choice to behave in a manner that promotes, but then punishes trust from others. We behave with integrity for selfish reasons. In particular we realize that co-operation is more beneficial than conflict and since true co-operation cannot exist without trust, it is very much to our benefit to do what we can to promote trust in others and to ensure that trust is long lasting. Behaviors such as doing what you say you are going to do, trying whenever possible to render statements that are as close to truth as your understanding of the truth will allow you to make, not harming others who have done no harm to you are all things that promote trust and tend to get folded into a mature left hander's personal system of ethics. The key is that left handers adopt these ethics not because there is some god or goddess up there who will reward them if they do and/or punish them if they don't, they adopt these ethics because they understand that ultimately it will benefit them to do so. A Left hander understands that for co-operation to work, all persons must agree to co-operate; any thing else is coersion. Typicaly Left handers don't take kindly to being coerced. Agreements and contracts establish the boundaries of mutually agreed upon co-operation. One of the aspects of the mythical Devil, is that he is always trying to make a deal. Left handers are always trying to make deals, because the only way to have true co-operation is to make deals. Ambiguous expectations about what is expected from each party in an agreement tend to promote conflict, and conflict depletes a person's energy usually without the benefit of allowing that person to obtain their desires. Right handers tend to adopt pre-ordained ethical systems, and rules. This works as long as the right handers are co-operating with people who have similar underlying ethical systems. Whenever there is an ambiguous understanding by co-operating parties regarding what is expected of them in the "contract", they merely consult the shared ethical system for a resolution. Left handers tend to favor their freedom, and so there is no implicit assumption regarding a shared ethical system that can be used to resolve ambiguities in understanding between co-operating parties. Instead Left handers tend to favor more explicitly worded contracts tailored to suit the needs or desires of each co-operating individual. Right handers have trouble working with people (even other Right handers) who do not subscribe to the same or similar pre-ordained ethical system. The global conflicts and religious wars of past and present attest to this statement. Left handers generally only run into trouble when they fail to unambigously word their agreements. However, a mature Left hander takes responsibility for this upon themselves and does not blame the other party because of a personal failure to read the fine print. They simply try to learn from their mistakes and do better next time. A Left hander understands that the only real consequence of breaking an agreement is that it will tend to obliterate trust with the party you opted to make the agreement with in the first place. A secondary effect of breaking agreements is that any onlookers to the breach of agreement will be less likely to trust the offending party. Mature Left handers realize that these are pretty severe consequences, because they understand the value of trust in forging future mutally beneficial agreements with others. If however, a Left hander finds themselves in the position that they have made an agreement which has more negative consequences than positive ones, then failure to abide by the agreement is not inherrently wrong, but they need to understand the consequences to trust that breaking agreements will have. Often Left handers will find themselves in a position where they are trying to co-operate with a Right hander who does not share their ethical system. Often times the Right hander will not have a great tolerance for detail when it comes to forming the agreement and try as the Left hander might, they are unable to get the Right hander to understand the terms of the agreement. Often the Right hander will presume that their personal ethical system trumps any terms of the agreement that they have made with the Left hander. It is for this reason that the wise Left hander doesn't put a great deal of trust in the word of a Right hander. Agreements between Left handers and Right handers often result in unpleasant conflicts in addition to the normal loss of trust. This is because the Right hander often feels entitled or even compelled by virtue of the fact that they are adhering to their own system of ethics, to coerce the Left hander into doing the same. Right handers have strange notions (from the Left hander's perspective) on how to go about fulfilling their desires. Whereas a Left hander is prone to honest negotiation of win/win scenarios, the Right hand path is apparently more convoluted. A successful Right hander will pick an ethical system that enables them to profit by convincing others that folliwng this system is the "right thing to do". It matters little if by following this system of ethics the others benefit or not so long as they abide by the Right hander's rules. Often the system of ethics will be accompanied by a mythical system which promises a reward in the "afterlife" for making sacrifices to the leaders of the Right hand system here and now. Thus there are two kinds of Right handers: leaders, and followers. Leaders of Right hand systems consider the Left hander's independence a threat to their own well being. What if the sheep leave the flock is often the hidden fear among such leaders. Followers in the Right handed systems are often just as bad. They are often jealous of the Left hander's independence and don't feel that it is fair that they should have to sacrifice while the Left hander doesn't "pull his weight" so to speak. Seldom are the Followers in a Right handed system smart enough to realize that they could be just as independent if they would only throw off the chains that bind them. If they were that smart chances are they would make themselves leaders in their system and reap the benefits thereof. Some tips for forming agreements from one left hander to another one: 1. Make sure your agreement has an exit clause, just in case you realize that you misunderstood the cost/benefit of keeping the agreement. Without an exit clause, you have no means to end the agreement without destroying trust. 2. Understand all of the terms of your agreement and what you must do in order to abide by them. 3. Make sure you understand the other party's obligations and that you have some way to verify that they have kept their end of the bargain. 4. Avoid negotiating agreements at gunpoint (and it doesn't really matter which way the barrel of the gun is facing.) These are not agreements and are liable to result in all sorts of unpleasant suprises for you down the road especially when it is you toward whom the gun is pointing. Just ask the American Indians of the 19th century. If you find that you have no way out of such a situation, then go ahead and negotiate the best deal you can, cross your fingers and look for a way to get the upper hand later on so that you have leverage to obliterate your opressor, or re-negotate terms that are to your liking. 5. Never make an agreement where you are giving up more than you are gaining. Also avoid letting others enter into agreements where they loose more than they gain. Failure to do this will have the tendency to cause either you or the other person to want to break the agreement. The key words here are "Win/Win scenario". 6. Avoid making deals with Right handers, they are terrible negotiators and not likely to stick to the agreement. This is particularly true if the agreement runs afoul of their pre-ordained system of ethics. It is interesting that the mythical devil (a Right hand symbol) of the archetypal left hander, is often depicted making deals with right handers who fail to attend to the fine print of the agreement or leave enough ambiguity in their wording that undesired results ensue from abiding by the agreement. Right handers tend to label this figure as evil, whereas left handers tend to consider this figure instructive and try to learn from the mistakes made by the unwitting rubes in the story.