“Near neighbor, far fool”– This is the whole of the Law.

The question is: How am I supposed to act?

This is a deepsocket obsession. When I was a child, it did not trouble me much. I thought in the carefree, loose manner of a child. However, when I hit puberty, testosterone suffused me. Law and responsibility descended. My nature now demanded that every action and gesture be in accordance with law. Seriousness and gravity suffused my demeanor. I turned to an ethic of Spartan virtue. Teenage cuties giggled at my solemnity, and I was puzzled.

The law I attempted to follow was always incomplete. I expanded it, learning about social dynamics, ethics, PUA, physiognomy, game theory, worldview, etc. Endless complications and permutations, which nonetheless fail to answer the simple question: “How should I act?”

This answer must be simple, not complex – applicable moment to moment, without long cogitation and processing delays. It must be natural and heartfelt. Hence my obsession with koans – to reduce the law to a single, defined mantra.

The most famous of these was Jesus’ statement:

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

The first is simple enough. We have the whole Bible to inform its meaning. But the second is highly opaque. What is its correct application in any particular circumstance? Churchian beta unconditional softness? Alpha gamesmanship? Traditional masculinity? Judgment or grace? What of ingenopathy, atomization, and the proliferation of social predators? What of cultural degeneracy? How does one act?

Who is a neighbor? Jesus answered this too, in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Stripping away the rhetorical shaming component, and the deliberate intent to confuse with which Jesus cloaked his parables, the answer is simple: he who is likely to help you – he who is likely to be a good neighbor.

This resolves much Churchian confusion. Now we understand Abraham’s behavior towards guests:

Abraham’s Celestial Visitors

1And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; 2And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 3And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: 4Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 5And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. 6And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. 7And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. 8And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

This zealous hospitality and self-abasement are not the act of a beta, but of a neighbor. Abraham does not treat enemies thus, but slaughters them.

Still, we need something more refined and nuanced than an on-off switch. Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Jesus’ parables proclaim the value of crafty stewards and calculating servants.

I recently read David Achord’s excellent Zombie Rules series. Liberals hate his work for its masculinity, K-selection, and realism. Achord is a Southern ex-military cop with almost no social media presence. He looks retired; his few pics are too low-quality to tell much, but he appears to be a high testosterone fellow with robusticity and large facial dimensions. I’d expect some Neanderthal shift but nothing like a crippling degree of ingenopathy.

His books provide an endless procession of human garbage for the reader’s inspection. The later betrayals of traitors are accurately foreshadowed by demeanor and in some cases even physiognomy. The character of rabbits, women and psychopaths is placed on merciless display. Not that the range is simplistic – there is a full spectrum from K honorable warrior to r shitbird. Redemptions occur, although underlying biopotential is fixed. Clearly he is drawing from a long and varied experience of modern American humanity.

Repeatedly, Achord’s protagonist makes the error of insufficiently flagging these early dishonor indicators, and taking insufficiently ruthless measures in response to them. His poorly calibrated trust repeatedly results in the horrific deaths of loved ones and main characters. Naivete is the primary flaw of an otherwise very competent main character. In short, it is a Neanderthal book.

A zombie apocalypse novel allows metaphorical translation of Achord’s experience with humanity into starkly concrete physical terms. Neighbor has a literal meaning again – those in close physical proximity. Betrayal and foolishness result in literal flesh-rending. In Achord’s universe, you do not want bad neighbors. Better to have no neighbors at all.

Yet good neighbors are worth gold. Without them, life long-term is impossible and worthless.

Then there are the inbetween people, who take the color of their surroundings. These people are a risk, at best. When bad elements are included in the mix, they become liabilities almost as dangerous as their corrupters – perhaps more so, due to their increased closeness.

I highly recommend this series to ingenopathic Neanderthals. By sheer variety and weight of consequences, it drives home as few series ever have the importance of discrimination. It is a practical broad-spectrum innoculation against naivete. It teaches the reader who can be relied upon, and who can’t.

These lessons might have been obvious in a less atomized and decline-prosperous age, but now they are not.

—

The “golden rule” is a lie. Jesus did not say “others”, plural universal. He said “neighbor”, singular specific.

Achord’s series allowed me to synthesize Jesus’ maxim with the rest of the Bible, and indeed with my entire worldview and lifelong study of the “how should I act” problem. The law is simple:

“Near neighbor, far fool.”

Let’s go over it one word at a time.

“Near” – What is love? How does one love one’s neighbor as oneself? To be a good neighbor requires that one already be neighbors, ie in proximity. One should desire proximity with the good. Any concept of love that does not desire to reduce distance is incomplete. This is especially important in an age of atomization, when the onus is on the individual to form synthetic tribes. Bring good men close, and you will better be able to serve them as a neighbor. Obviously this can be taken to an annoying extreme – I say this as someone who by default needs almost no social interaction whatsoever. I am not advising anyone to be clingy, but to make an effort. Good men in a neighborhood together = distributed defense. Good men alone = prey. So draw them in, charm them, accomodate them, whatever it takes. “Near” them. No extravagance is too much. They are gold.

“Neighbor” – as explained in the parable of the Good Samaritan link, a neighbor is one who picks benefit-benefit in prisoner’s dilemma with you, rather than defect-defect. A neighbor is a good, honorable man. Those who you would wish to be your neighbor, already are your neighbor, if you are interacting with them. Physically proximate assholes, fools, and wicked men are not.

“Far” – used as a verb. Keep them far from your heart, far from your person, far from your interests and associates. Use all strategem and guile. Win the moral level of the conflict before the crowd, but don’t treat honorably with those who have none. They wage total war against humanity behind a cloak of seeming goodness; return the favor. Smile and nod; gather information; judge in your private heart; act under cover of night.

“Fool” – Not only the wicked are dangerous, but the weak. Not only the liars, but the stupid. Apply all heuristics in identifying fools, just as you do to find neighbors.

—

Put the whole phrase back together: “Near neighbor, far fool”. It’s clear that in practice, its application must be a gradient. It’s an art-form, not a formula.

I suggest rating people from +5 to -5:
Neighbor 1-5
Neutral 0
Fool 1-5

A person’s rating may vary a little by context or over time, but character is in general pretty stable.

In theory, this koan should allow me to smoothly transform my understanding of social performance from an impersonal obsession with legalistic adherence to a charismatic non-naive focus on and appreciation for others. It should satisfy my need for a fully integrated understanding of the reasons behind my actions. It should allow Powerspeak with sociopaths and Altonalspeak with Neanderthards. It gives me a reason to be enthusiastic again about an area that has become too overloaded with confusing and contradictory rules and self-condemnation. It teaches thankfulness, delight, and enjoyment even when interacting with serpents. The game, after all, is its own reward.

—

Let’s expand the ratings system a bit. +5 to -5 for virtue (previously called neighbor/fool score). We need some other scores to round out our spreadsheet, however.

Proximity: +5 to -5.

Involved in your life: 1-5
No contact: 0

What do the negative proximity scores mean? I’d reserve those for damage inflicted, by self or others. -5 indicates Biblical destruction – of life, reputation, family, AND associates. -2 might be you got the guy fired or something. You get the idea. Rate by feel.

Next, confidence. This rating captures how certain you are of the virtue score. 0-5 scale is appropriate; negative numbers are meaningless.

So the neighbor/fool spreadsheet would look like this:

Your goal is to maximize the “sum” cell at the bottom right of the spreadsheet. This provides proper motivations.

Our current score is 20. Here are some ways we could improve that:

1. Disciple Bob to become a better man. Virtue 3->4. Proximity 2->3.
2. Test Bob’s character. Confidence 4->5.
3. Shun Alice. Proximity 1->0.
4. Harm Alice. Proximity 1->-1.
5. Make some more good friends.
6. Harm some more fools.