The Nazis organized evil: they put it on index cards, as experiments to try out. For example, a card might have written on it the following: pull a dissenter’s fingernails out with a pair of pliers; then see if he becomes more loyal to the Party, to Hitler and his officials. A Nazi doctor, a psychopath, would see that and say to himself “I’ve got to try that and see what happens!”
The philosopher, Robert S. Hartman, one of those dissenters to what he noticed was going on in his native country, Germany, (and who was smuggled out of his country by the underground) said to himself, “Why not organize goodness? Firstly, though, I’ll have to exactly define what ‘good’ is, so we’ll know what we’re doing.” He then proceeded to work out a Formal Axiology in which “good” is a well-defined term. This he accomplished by 1975.
Today, we see both on the internet and in the streets many movements for good. There are good-cause sites - which for example propose that we make every sort of corruption a crime – or that we salvage and restore the environment. Or that we encourage the formation of worker-owned businesses. Or that we urgently advocate for more gun safety, for the licensing and registration of gun ownership (just as we have currently for automobiles.) There are nonprofit organizations devoted to getting out the vote, to increasing voter participation. There are mobilizations devoted to apprenticeship programs; and to better safety conditions for workers. Etc., etc. To that extent Dr. Hartman’s dream has come true. He died in 1973 but his work lives on.
What say you? Is it a good idea to organize goodness? How can it be done better?