Maori warrior hongi-greeting American soldier   (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

   

                                

                          Traditional Indian Namaste greeting (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

It is true that many deep differences between the meme combinations and morés of different societies can be found. But to say, as some moral relativists do³, that these cultures are therefore incommensurable is to abandon humanity to war for all time. And it simply isn’t true.

   

  American handshake (Pres. Obama greets Pope Francis) (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

                                          

   

                  English poet-musician Sting (Gordon Sumner) (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

In the first place, though there are differences, there are many similarities in our ways of life. Some of the highest peaks in the meme-scapes of all cultures coincide. Everywhere on earth, people respect and value wisdom, courage, love, and freedom. Different cultures adhere to moral values, and the patterns of behavior that they lead to, in varying degrees and in varying ways and combinations. But the areas of thinking we have in common far outweigh our differences. As Gordon Sumner (Sting) said in the 1980s, “The Russians love their children too.”

In the second place, we can learn. We can learn to fish in four ways instead of just one. We can learn to speak in several languages. We can learn to refrain from giving in to violent impulses that cause men to beat women or children or each other or engage in crime or war. We can learn to imprison rather than execute convicted murderers. We can learn regular exercise and moderate eating as simply habits of all rational adults.

The values discussed in this book—values that derive from and are tailored for the physical universe—are pointing us toward a society that will place ever greater emphasis on imagination, self-discipline, education, citizenship, pluralism, and good will. Courage, wisdom, freedom, and love. We need a rational global society in a state of dynamic equilibrium, capable of responding effectively to an ever greater range of challenges, both short and long term. Then we can spread our species out to our destiny—the stars.