Does our moral compass always shows us North?
The power of “jinx” is something that only exist if we believe in it. Things, just happen. No one has the supernatural gift to “magically” make shit up. Sometimes we just believe people have this capacity on our lives and we let it affect us. We become their Voodoo doll and is funny (crazy), because it all lives in our heads. They don’t even know or consider us in that way. Yet we believe they have that power for no real reason at all. Why?
We let them.
These people, most of the time, don’t even realize they have that effect on us (and is better to keep it that way). Good people will help us try and work out the “why” and overcome this but bad people will just use it to their advantage. They will learn how to use you.
So why we let them? Why, most often than not, we let others affect our decisions more than our own consciousness?
When I say people, that can be anyone from our own family and friends to complete strangers on the street. Sometimes we just stop doing something because “what would people think?” – WHO CARES? Why have we become like this?
I will do nothing because of public opinion, but everything because of conscience.
We have lost faith in our own conscience. In our gut feeling, in our own moral compass.
All the tools that we had to make our decisions are compromised. It is not because they don’t work but we have stopped using them. Following too much social clues and others opinion, we have replaced them with systems that are much worse off. Yes there are no absoultes and no tools are perfect or perfectly alligned and/or balanced. You can be sure though that what we had given genetically, instinctively would be the best tool out there.
Obviously I don’t want to talk for everyone, I repeat there are no absolutes.
The issue is more often than not people that follow their instincts without caring what others think or without following any moral compass at all are people that shouldn’t. On the other hand people with a very good gut feeling and instincts tend to listen way too much to others and have their judgement impaired instead.
Who decides though which is the true north for our moral compass??
Good question. If I shouldn’t blindly follow society, and I shouldn’t blindly follow instinct… what the fuck should I follow?
Let’s talk about stealing for example. We can all agree that stealing is wrong.
But now let’s me give you some example, and let’s see if we can all still agree that stealing is wrong in any case. Let’s try and not overthink any of these and take them just as they are.
Someone steals an old lady’s handbag for fun | That’s a easy one, wrong.
Someone steals bread because their kid hasn’t eaten for two days | I think that instinctively 90% of you will say ‘Not wrong’. I like to disagree. I hope that none of you it’s ever been in a situation where there was no food on the table. And I hope that you were not a parent that didn’t know how to feed their children. I guess is a natural instinct for a parent to do anything they can to feed their kids, even if that means breaking the law. But here’s what I always ask myself when I’m presented with this question: Was there really no other option? To have so little, or no money that you can’t have food on the table is exceptionally rare, even in underdeveloped countries nowadays, there is always a way. We are not talking of countries that are experiencing war and there is no job, no wealth to move things around, etc. Those are truly exceptional cases and the laws are all upside down by then. If there is a war there is no more moral compass, personal or societal one. Let’s talk about a “normal country”. There is always a job available, a task to do which you are going to get paid for, even if with just food and not money. There are other people you can ask help to. You can elemosinate, beg even. Was it a streak of bad decisions that got you to that point? Then stealing is even more wrong, you had options and you ruined them to the point that now you are left to steal to feed your children. Or was it pride? You couldn’t do the menial job, you couldn’t ask for help or beg. Stealing was the only thing to do because you can still put yourself on a pedestal as the one that’d do anything for their children. Either way, it was the parent decisions, or lack of, that could have change the course of the story in either way.
Someone steals €100 million through financial fraud but never physically takes anything from another person. | Even though, personally I would love to pull this off and get away with it, because let’s be honest, $100m will solve all my problems and I could enjoy life a little more, I have to say that’s still wrong. There are job on the lines of other people if something like this happen. It could ruin someone’s life. Now would stealing $100k from a company like Nvidia be wrong? If we had a modern era Robin Hood, incredibly skilled hacker, that could do it and use the money to give to the poor. Just to explain that would be the 0.00000186% of it. To put in perspective if you had a $1000, and someone took that away from you, that would be 0.001862, a cent of a cent. You wouldn’t even notice. Our banks probably do that all the time, legally. Every time you go groceries with the 0.99 and pay cash you are loosing that. Yet I’m sure that even now we are all agreeing that is still wrong. Weird no?
Someone steals medicine they can’t afford. |
Someone illegally downloads a movie.
Someone finds €50 on the floor and pockets it.
If as a society we have agreed that stealing is wrong should align our own moral compass to that and do anything we can to follow that north regardless of what our instincts are telling us? Or we can continue that there is no true north in morals and therefore no absolute right or wrong?