Massimo,
It seems that if we want to understand the is, before prescribing the ought, we need to go somewhat beyond particular human frameworks, since the fact remains that the broader the level of context, the more basic are the denominators.
Currently there is a strong element of social polarization, so rather than trying to delve into the infinite arguments from both sides, that the other will ignore anyway, wouldn't it be useful to first understand the basic dynamic of polarities?
Nature does tend to offer up quite a number of binaries, from male and female, to left and right, liberal and conservative, good and bad, even positive and negative charge, yet the human tendency is to try to frame the world monolithically. Which might be to accept that every coin has two sides, but so often descends into, "My side is right and your side is wrong."
One idea that's been swirling around my mind of late is that there are two basic dynamics at work; Synchronization and harmonization.
What seems to be overlooked, even by some of the science writers, is that synchronization is centripetal, while harmonization is centrifugal. So we have nodes and networks, organisms and ecosystems, particles and fields.
Being mobile, goal oriented creatures, we tend to focus on the object and lose sight of the context. Signal versus noise. The meta effect is that we get caught up in tribal thinking, where synchronization tends to dominate. The consequence is powerful, as we are bound up in ever tighter and more focused groups, but the downside is loosing sight of the actually much larger field of play and how and where we and our group might best fit in.
One example is the current American assumption of world hegemony as a birthright, rather than the original hope of a better future that it has corrupted.
Consequently the reaction by other world powers is to harmonize their relationships, in terms of presumptive equals. Whether or not it holds over the long run, it does offer an appealing counter-example to current American actions.
Of course, I'm just using this as a real world example of the underlaying dynamic.
When we are taking millions and billions of people, it's not so much culture, politics, morality, etc, as it's biology and physics as the operational processes at work. So it might be worth the time to take them into consideration.
