Ethical 106
Form
What form would a new ethical framework take? How would it be interacted with?
The written and oral traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, condensed into rigid canons, have become weapons with which to defend and attack. Whilst defending their respective faiths against all manner of heresies, a canon is a bad model if ideas are to be updated and developed, and if ordinary people are to be involved. On the other hand, the Quaker Advices and Queries are more flexible, in that they are periodically revised and updated.
Canonisation - or worse, deification - of a person or a cabal is an extremely unattractive idea. It is hard not to think of Miss Trunchbull in Roald Dahl's Matilda: "I am God!" On the other hand, had Oliver Cromwell allowed himself to be crowned, thus bringing an end to the Commonwealth, many of the reforms brought about by the Commonwealth might have been preserved. However, Orwell writes of Big Brother in this way in 1984. Generally, I think, revering an invdividual too greatly can be expected to end in tears.
The new ethical framework would need to be flexible enough to be expanded/contracted and changed to respond adequately to circumstances. It would be in the hands of many, and not merely an elite, but neither would it be merely populist (no 'beauty-contest' cell-phone voting). Wikipedia seems like quite a good model, as does what I understand about Linux.
Ethical 106 (this page)