The first chapter explained the origin of GOAM, the second chapter explained what GOAM is, and the third chapter explained how Truth is inherently a moral characteristic of Antelism and GOAM. The fourth chapter goes over an important principle of GOAM and that is its antithesis known as BOAM, The Bad of All Men.
The Bad of All Men is the opposite concept of GOAM, and just like GOAM we can divide it and view it as the Bad of Oneself and the Bad of Others.
The Morality of GOAM doesn’t talk about specific moral scenarios, and the reason for this is because the concept is to achieve overall Goodness of All Men. The view of Antelism is that overall behavior, not isolated events, are what is important. That is why the trolly problem doesn’t have an answer in Antelism, because life isn’t a trolly problem, life is much more grand and complex than that.
Antelism sees three states of Men. The Good of Men, The Neutrality of Men, and the Bad of Men. The moral compass of Antelism states that one’s actions are limited by three principles. First, does it violate Truth? Second, does it violate GOAM? Third, does it violate the principle of Freedom?
Truth, Good, and Freedom, those are the three moral principles guiding Antelism. Telling someone a lie violates Truth. Causing someone harm violates Goodness, and restricting someone’s choices and action violates Freedom.
The first focus is on the Good of Men. If you perform an action that benefits yourself but hurts another person, that is considered Morally Wrong in Antelism. You cannot earn pleasure at the expense of another person without their consent (Freedom), and even then if it is coerced consent then it is usually not considered valid consent.
This fundamental principle, that you cannot use Bad (Without Consent) as payment for Good is extremely important in Antelism. The reason for the creation of this principle is to avoid two undesirable outcomes. First undesirable outcome is an individual sacrificing others in exchange for their own Goodness. GOAM is the Good of All Men, therefore if an individual is now more “Good” then they can find justification for saying they are following GOAM even if others are more “Bad” in exchange. The other scenario is focusing on a concept that is known as “The Greater Good” as a methodology of moral execution. If 20% have to suffer for 80% to prosper then one can argue that this is for the greater good. This concept of “For The Greater Good” is considered to be a dangerous concept and is not part of Antelist ideology. Many people have suffered and been murdered in exchange for this principle of “For The Greater Good” and thus to avoid repeating the evil that has resulted from this ideology it has been outlawed as part of Antelist morality. The Greater Good can discriminate, The Good of All Men does not discriminate. You cannot have the Good of a few or the Good of a majority in exchange for the Bad of others. This applies to oneself and it applies to society as a whole.
Thus, in Antelism it is prohibited to act towards Goodness in exchange for Badness done onto others or yourself (without consent).
The consent part is important to understand. For example taking a vaccine, you suffer immediate pain (Badness) but you develop immunity (Goodness). What is the moral behavior in this situation? The answer, as unfortunate as it is, is that there is no answer. The only answer is that a person must be allowed to maintain their own autonomy and freedom, and thus there is no way one can decide for a person whether to take the vaccine or not. They as an individual have to make the choice to choose a Good (a strong immune system) in exchange for a Bad (pain from the vaccine shot).
Another example is working out. Working out requires work and pain in order to become stronger. That pain and suffering and soreness is viewed as a Bad since it’s discomfort. However it results in a “greater good” of strength and health.
In terms of Moral Behavior, we cannot force things onto other people, however we can recommend things. A recommendation is not force. Antelism recommends people work out to become physically stronger because it believes it will lead to “greater” GOAM. It recommends being fit, being smart, being Truthful, because Antelism believes that this will lead to better lives for all people. It recommends these things but does not force them. Thus being healthy is viewed as a moral Good, but if you aren’t health and you are not hurting other people through your lack of health then that is not considered a moral Bad it is considered moral Neutral.
In summary, GOAM has safeguards to prevent it from corruption. The first safeguard is you cannot violate Truth in exchange for GOAM. The second safeguard is you cannot exchange Good for Bad without consent and freedom. One cannot hurt someone in exchange for the pleasure of 10 people because it violates the “All Men” principle of Antelism. Only through consent without coercion can such a situation exist.