The Moral Anchor

The third volume of The Architect's Protocol examines the costs of moral relativism and asks what can still judge individuals, rulers, crowds, markets and laws once morality is treated as fluid. It argues that morality needs a standard above the one acting. The book looks at moral drift, the problem of actors defining their own standards, the limits of consensus and utility, and the loss of trust that follows. It then tests seven candidates for moral authority (conscience, reason, consensus, law, utility, the self and the matrix) and concludes that none can be final, calling instead for an external anchor it terms Moral North.