What is good? What is bad? What is right? What is wrong? We as a society and you as an individual have preconceived notions of these concepts. But in reality, they are just concepts. They have no existence in the world outside of what we think. Morality is so relative. There's nothing absolute about it at all.To illustrate this point; take how what we consider being right and wrong and spreading these ideas out over time and around the world. What I mean is; take the way we see right and wrong and go back 50 to 100 years. Go back thousands of years. Take the traditional values that we were raised with and compare them to those of people on the other side of the globe, or in counties with cultures and belief systems very different from ours. We would see how dramatically narrow our traditional view of morality truly is. We are all people. So who is to say which set of morals is superior?
We can even take a single individual and watch his or her morals change due to the life situation that they find themselves in. Take Steve for instance. Steve believes that it is wrong to infringe upon another person's rights. Steve's country is attacked and he enlists in the military to protect his country's rights to be free from attackers. Steve now becomes the attacker and is even willing to kill to defend his beliefs. Previous to this situation, Steve wouldn't have killed anyone. His morality is not only relative to how others see morality; it is relative to his own view with different situations.
There is a long list of things that are crimes in one person's book and a natural way of life in another person's book. There's no real point in making a list. The real point is to bring attention to the fact that morality is part of ego identity. If we all transcended the heavy grip of the ego; there would not be anarchy but peace. It sounds paradoxical, but if we all came to the understanding that we are one; it wouldn't make much sense to bring harm to our self. It would be like a person attacking himself. This is not a moral decision, but one of self preservation. It's all about perspective.
For more great perspective, read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!
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3 comments:
The fact that morality is relative seems so clear and simple. yet, it seems few know or understand that. Maybe people aren’t willing to accept they could be wrong or bad in the eyes of others? That the morals they built their life around may not be as solid as thought.
Absolutely. So simple a concept and yet few bother to recognize it. It is because the way we have been conditioned. It is the dualism inherent in our culture. There is "us" and there is "them". In reality, there is no "they". It is all "we". We are all in this together. The individualized ego identity can be like a cancer. It goes to war with it's own body, just as we attack ourselves when we attack each other.
Thanks for the comment Jaee.
Most don't even have a true concept of right and wrong, just ideas they were trained to believe since childhood. Most are told that it is a sacrilege to even question right and wrong. It is no wonder that we are often confused.
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