The first chapter covered the origin of GOAM, a moral system that can achieve a wide consensus amongst the majority of the population as well as a moral system that exists within the Micro and Macro. The second chapter explains what exactly that moral system is and what it means. This chapter is going to go over additional principles with regard to the Morality of GOAM.
Truth is the first pillar of Antelism and with its importance it is considered to be inherently Good. Truth by itself is inherently Good, and this concept is important for GOAM.
Why is this concept important for GOAM? Because Good an Abstract Object, and just like all Abstract Objects it is Subjective. Therefore anyone can choose to define Good in their own way and thus corrupt the Antelist meaning of GOAM.
A worrying example is if someone says Good means that an individual is creating sand castles. A silly example, but one that drives the point, because in that situation where “good” means “building sandcastles” that means that the Good of All Men would mean for all people to be building sandcastles.
That is why it is important to define Good, both specifically in terms of universal qualities for all people to follow, but also specifically in terms of subjective factors that are not included in it. The Good of All Men does not include religious laws, because if it were to do so then it would not be a universal morality but rather a limited morality that only applies to sub-sections of the population.
Thus, the following chapters go over those elements of GOAM, the first one being Truth.
Truth is reality, and thus rejecting Truth is rejecting reality and viewed as a Negative thing in Antelism. In terms of Morality, being against Truth is considered to be a generally bad thing but there is nuance in that topic.
The promotion of Truth is viewed as a Good thing, the promotion of Lies is considered a Bad thing. And Good and Bad in terms of Antelism does not care about intention, because intention is just Thought, rather it is the action where the morality lies.
And it is this case where the emphasis on Good instead of Great or Perfect is emphasized. Antelism isn’t Expecting people to tell the Truth 100% of the time. Antelism would love to have people tell Truth 100% of the time and would prefer it, but Antelism doesn’t Expect everyone to actually achieve this “perfection”. The reason is because perfection isn’t viewed as expected amongst the majority of the population, and GOAM as a universal ideology cannot demand perfection, because if it does, it would result in a non-universal morality.
Thus we need people to desire two things. First is the inherent desire to follow and tell Truth, and second is to tell and follow Truth. Without emotional desire to follow Truth then one will not have the emotion to act towards Truth. And without action there is no morality. So that is the common principle people need to first have in Antelism, first the Belief in Truth, the Desire for Truth, then to Act for Truth.
A Good Person has the duality of speaking Truth (Behavior) and believing Truth (Wellbeing).
Truth is the first priority in Antelism, however, GOAM, as it refers to Action (Behavior) has the principle of the Good of Truth, which means that All Men (All People) generally follow Truth. Not the Perfection of Truth or the Great of Truth, which Antelism desires, but the Good of Truth. That means the majority of the population and oneself are Truthful to a solid degree.
What is this degree of Truth that is required to be classified as Good? The degree of Truth required to be classified as Good is the degree in which general improvement to oneself and all people are being made. For an individual, Good of Oneself, they need to reach a level of believing and following Truth that is improving their life overtime. For Societal GOAM (Societal GOAM will be talked about in a later chapter) it is the level in which the society as a whole has reached a high enough level of Truth where society as a whole is improving overtime.
I want to put focus on the concept of Good instead of Great and Perfect. Just because someone lies, accidentally or not, does not inherently make that person Bad, just the action. In a later chapter this is discussed in greater detail. The idea for an individual is to focus on being Good in an overall state, not perfect with all of their individual actions. A person who lied 1 out of 100 times in a week is not something of high Moral Concern or something to Worry about a lot. It is important for people to tell the Truth consistently and also Believe it is important to tell the Truth.
The Belief in Truth is an Antelist principle but not necessarily part of the universal moral system of GOAM. If someone doesn’t believe that Truth is important, but that person always tells the Truth and doesn’t do anything to harm others, and has helped others, that person is not considered morally faulty in GOAM, however in Antelism that person is not considered to be an Antelist. This is the nuance of having an ideology with a universal morality centered on action and wellbeing.
In conclusion, Truth is the first level of morality in Antelism and is tied to what Good means in GOAM.