When faced with a scenario or set of choices how do we know
what is moral?
It’s about to get deep, real deep.
There might even be some grotesque over- analysed of thought
patterns and over detailed wording of ideas like “broad vs. specific behaviour
of humans”.
I think one of the best ways to hit this topic right is to
scope through some examples and bring up moral dilemmas, in doing so we can
peruse the dynamics of the human beings decision making apparatus.
So let’s figure out what is moral.
One major attribute we must keep looking for is
justification. This basically amounts to the “why” of a situation.
Then we need to analyse the context of the actions and
scenario. The reason why these things matter is because of several human
qualities, human drive for self fulfilment, ability to suffer, and the
combination of the two.
Human beings always possess a drive and an ability to suffer;
because of these two qualities we have morals.
These two qualities are in a constant struggle both within
the human and externally between humans.
Morals come into the picture when we place our self fulfilment
above the suffering of others.
If you begin analyzing a multitude of situations you will
find that selfishness for one’s own fulfilment is the root of moral problems.
In order to improve yourself and become a better person you
would have to critically analyse your own thoughts and figure out if yourself fulfilment
dramatically caused suffering in another.
Now we have to be able to understand
suffering in others which leads us to an interesting human attribute, empathy.
Empathy is the ability to understand existence from another person’s
perspective. This takes a super deep understanding of you.
This segues into
understanding others if you apply what you have learned about yourself toward others.
When we are empathetic we can feel others joys and sorrows.
When we can
understand and feel others we can then figure out where our self fulfilment
should be and where not to overextend it.
We have to work at increasing our own analytical skills and
self-reflection to help us determine what is moral.
No moral system, no dogma, no one person is going to create
a system to improve things and lay down what is moral and what is not.
The world is just too complex and there are too many
scenarios. What can help is individual empowerment of the mind.
This is why logical and critical thinking so much
because it teaches the individual to step out and test their own mind and the
minds of others.
With logic and critical thinking a human being can better
find truth and assess complex situations to better find morality.
Finding morality is your responsibility and yours alone on
an individual level, yet it is all of our responsibility to find it
individually and then educate ourselves such that we can express what we have
learned to others.
An individual burden on every shoulder, truly then on the
shoulders of all humanity.
ps/smoh
“To love.
To be loved.
To never forget your own insignificance.
To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you.
To seek joy in the saddest places.
To pursue beauty to its lair.
To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch.
To try and understand.
To never look away.
And never, never to forget.”
