When we are developing an idea we own it. Once it is finished it is others. So the greatest control we have over the ultimate interpretation of our ideas is at their conception, as they are crafted and before we share them. When an idea is unformed we have full control over its final form. Once it’s fully formed we own none of it.

We birth these ideas, guide their development but relinquish control when they enter the world. We have the most influence during the formation period. Like an overprotective parent, we need to know when to let go and let the idea face the world – a world full of competition of ideas, criticism, rejection, acceptance, misinterpretation and reinterpretation. To not release an idea into the wild will end up with our character forever being possessed by the idea, forever knowing that it was protected but didn’t truly live. And constantly pissed off that the world, only seeing glimpses of it, doesn’t see the idea the way we do.

We possess ideas as much as ideas possess us. There are ideas of the individual and the emergent group ideas. If fragments of an idea are spread amongst a group of individuals, say as part of their individual moral philosophy – then the emergent philosophy of the group consists of not only the philosophies of the set of individuals, but also the interactions between these constituent philosophies. As the groups we interact with scale, the consequences of our personal philosophy’s emerge with the magnification of the higher order consequences.

Therefore we need to craft our personal philosophy’s from the basis of our individual context, considering how this may manifest and interact with the competing philosophy’s of others adjacent to us and that may be touched directly and indirectly by our actions. As the world becomes more globalised and connected, we are tempted to think our actions affect everyone. However, in this new world distinct silos of communication and actions are becoming apparent. Therefore, attempting to adopt an ideal moral philosophy for guiding group behaviour won’t have the expected outcome when applied to these locally disconnected collections of individuals, due to unexpected inter- and intra-group interactions. All we can do is define our own guiding principles and attempt to apply these in the varying contexts we find ourselves in.