My opinions on the issue of morality

Why does anyone care about what makes behavior moral or immoral?

In theory, if everyone were to act in a moral fashion, life would be great for everyone. The problem with this idea is that people are selfish and more concerned with their own advancement. The common belief is that if someone’s behavior is moral then they are doing a service to the world at large so people, being selfish, are willing to claim that their behavior is moral regardless of the reality. Another problem is that people tend to believe that their own views on morality are far superior to those of others and, in arguing the differences, tend to do things that are immoral even by their own definition, and this generally results in them doing some sort of ridiculous update to their views on what is moral in order to justify their actions. I’d say something about a slippery slope, but eh….


On the other hand, it seems that people are more willing to conform than to create; adhering to societies standards of what is “right” or “wrong” is far easier than determining it for oneself. The majority of people are of the opinion that the social norms and mores allegedly created by the entirety of society hold a higher value than the ‘average mans’ opinion because society, as a whole, has decided upon them and in this pseudo-diplomatic fashion one is taught to have a more group oriented thinking pattern, regardless of whether or not the ideas expressed as the collective belief are in fact really representative of what the collective believes.


What current assumptions do you have about what makes beliefs about what’s ethical and unethical correct or incorrect?

There is no one on this earth, or possibly in the entire universe, that knows all that is to be known about the correctness or incorrectness of someone’s beliefs and I am really not a big fan of those who have some sort of ‘I have been touched by God’ complex that inspires them to harass others about what they, the ‘touched one’, feels is ethical. For someone to claim to be omniscient and therefore able to know if someone is right or wrong about their beliefs is an incredibly narcissistic claim to make, without even mentioning how sacrilegious it is. My own personal opinion on what is ethical definitely conflicts with how I live my life, not exactly a dilemma specific to myself, but one that raises issues nonetheless. In my opinion, based on my actions as well as those of others, I think that people are more willing to share their beliefs on what is ethical than they are to divulge what they do in contrast to those beliefs; a considerable number of people, the entire human race more than likely, has witnessed something that they would describe to others as unethical regardless of the fact that they had done it themselves at one point or another. It is this sort of detachment from one’s own beliefs that upsets me the most, even though I am guilty of the crime as well. It seems as if people have taken on a more individualistic viewpoint as of late, while at the same time attempting to hold on to a set of beliefs about what is ethical regardless of their own action. Even though I am one who has conflicts between my view of what is right and the actions I partake in, it does make me wonder about the future of our beliefs in what is ethical when I see priests molesting children and Buddhist monks taking up arms.


About how to determine what’s ethical when there is disagreement or uncertainty?

The degree to which something is ethical is so relative that I cannot begin to discuss this one. Many would say that the popular or majorities belief on what is ethical is the truth, but for me to conform to that mindset would probably involve something akin to intellectual suicide. I’m not anti-societal or the member of some secret underground anti-cultural revolution, but I do believe that of the people included in the term “society” there is a ridiculously large number of people who are content in their own ignorance and believe that to deviate from it would be disastrous, regardless of how much they enjoy their current situation. I would like to believe that people know the difference between right and wrong, but the two terms are relative and trying to convince someone that their ‘right’ ideas are in fact wrong oftentimes has the opposite effect and only makes them more defensive about their beliefs.

Premeditated Kindness

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