By way of introduction, I'd like to guarantee that this diary has very much to do with politics. You just might have to read on a bit until that becomes immediately apparent.
Why do we struggle to do good?
Why do we really care about our personal legacy?
As it relates to the concept of my posterity -- those who live on after my death -- what benefit is it to me if their memory of me is a good one? I'm not around to hear it anyway.
One might answer that we do good because we are ultimately judged by God. But I think that this universal cornerstone of any religion -- morality -- is a cultural codification of a natural human trait.
The real answer to the questions listed above is very simple: NATURAL SELECTION
If my genes benefit in the quantity of their duplication by my living a life that is memorialized pleasantly by those who outlive me, then selection will tend to favor that type of trait in people. Since, when I'm gone, my offspring who carry my genes may have the opportunity to rely on the resources of others not related (a characteristic of human cultures, and not one shared by too many other animal societies), they carry my reputation with them to the asking table. The combined preexisting traits of long term memory and pack social structure made humans capable of aquiring this adaptation.
You can only have so many children in your lifetime. So, the best way of making sure that your genes are propagated, really, is to make a legacy for yourself that succeeds you in the immediately subsequent generations. The aquisition of material possessions is a way to do this, and so is the aquisition of fame or noteriety of the positive sort (or with a seasoning of the negative sort if it makes your legacy more interesting and hence more memorable). In this manner, your offspring have a leg up on those whose parents didn't get that kind of result from their lives -- don't have anything named after them, you know.
So, as obvious as all of this is, which is to say as natural to human nature as it is, it helps us to accomplish the goal of a good legacy if we believe there will be negative outcomes to our own selves (or souls) if we fail in our actions to inspire a good legacy. This is where getting judged by God comes in. It's a ready-made formula to living a life worthy of good legacy. It also helps that God tends to judge us on those things which also benefit gene propagation: things that enable good and stable childrearing and a peaceful coexistence. We are also judged on our good deeds to strangers, or our broader collective support of the healthy growth of the whole of society. In this sense, religion is the muse and inspiration of the masses. Those who, without rote direction, might otherwise fall astray to devious antisocial behaviors that are unlikely to contribute positively to their good legacy.
This is all by way of reaffirming that religious laws might just be a culturally-manifested consequence of natural selection. If this is the case, then it bears looking into the effect that this has on our collective well-being, especially since we are not consious of it most of the time.
Just like any other natural species-specific trait, this "posterity gene" manifests itself differently in different people and groups of people. Each of us has our own equation of how we intend to maximize the positive effect of our legacy on the success of our offspring. Some tend to favor selfishness over magnanimity in a way that garners more material resources for their kin. Some tend to favor magnanimity over selfishness in a way that garners recognition and respect for their kin. The religions of different human societies tend to steer the majority of the people within that society to a certain position on this scale. Only a few outlier individuals ever get close to embodying the extremes of either of these positions.
What we see over the history of the United States is a society that was generally founded on (and has grown economically prosperous by it) a position along the scale that tends to favor selfishness over magnanimity. It is often said that we are fundamentally a Christian nation. It would be more correct to say that we are fundamentally a Materialist nation. The brands of Christianity that have been fashionable among the past ten generations of Americans are the followings of Christ's teachings in name only. In actuality what has evolved from the original intent of the religious doctrine (to help your genes garner resources for posterity) is a flawed morality that equates material possession with good legacy and seeks to justify this through enforcement by religious sanctification.
What the progressive movement is about is bringing the concept of magnanimity back as a producer of good legacy within our culture. We will be far better off at this point in our development if we shift the scale over in that direction (left, right?). It may not be true that we are judged by our creator in the afterlife, but it is certainly true that we are judged during and after our lifetime by those who knew of us (or at least knew of us). The criteria that we use today as a collective to make this judgment is more often than not superficial in nature, consisting mostly of looks and wealth. Imagine a society in which the superstars among us were the ones who toiled away selflessly their whole lives. Some of them certainly are, even today, so I know that it is possible to shift more in that direction as a whole.
So shamelessly live your life so that you are memorialized pleasantly by those who outlive you. Do your offspring a favor and make it easier on them to carry on the tradition that is your association. It's not enough for them to be able to spend your money when you are gone; they must also be able to collect interest on your reputation for investment in the tools of their life's work. This way it will be easier for them to do the same for their children. Judge and speak out favorably for the sake of those who were rich in heart, if not in net worth. Don't mind the entreaties of the Fortune 500, Hollywood, and Beltway superstars for your attention. They are in need only of devaluation and humility. Their legacies will be just fine without your added support.
I am so hopeful that we have the power to make the world a better place. I think that all it takes is a greater self-awareness of the reasons that we naturally act the way that we do and the historical enforcements that we have received that steer us in a certain direction. The pendulum swings in smaller and greater scales, and although it has swung the full reach of smaller scales over the last 250 years, I believe that it may swing a greater scale sooner rather than later, and it is up to us to determine the course of that great swing.
As long as we collectively value the material attainment of wealth over the virtue of self sacrifice, there will always be corporate and political corruption along with a constant widening of the gap betwen the rich and the poor in America. We can't let the pendulum to swing in that direction any more than it has already.