Flip the Script

Most discussions of morality involve the fight between right and wrong, casting humans as fundamentally selfish (or evil, or bestial) creatures that must restrain themselves from doing wrong in order to do right. The moral actor has traits like a conscience to discern, restraint to control urges, and will to persevere.

What I am interested in is the underlying world that supports this mindset. It assumes that selfish acts have a sort of gravity, and that one who is moral must struggle in order to keep their path clear of doing bad. While I believe that some moral issues are indeed difficult, and some people live lives of constant moral tension, this paradigm is by no means ubiquitous.

I have a few issues. First, not all good choices are hard to make. Sometimes doing good is rather easy. In fact, it is the thing a moral actor wants the most! Consider helping your family, or your lover. Those impulses often far outweigh any selfish desire we may foster.

Secondly, this struggling mindset focuses the drama of right and wrong within the actor, which I think is a dangerous perspective. An action is right if it puts the situation in its best arrangement, good exists apart from the actor... at least in my little picture of the world. Seating good and bad within the person, though, makes morality about them. Suddenly people start striving to be good people, which, I'm sorry, while its seems nice, is actually a distraction. People should strive to do good, and if they think of good as in the world, it gets a bit easier to do.

Finally, casting ethical actions as struggles makes the intensity of an action related to the amount of struggle. The harder it was to make a decision, it would seem, the more moral the person who can still do right. While I have nothing but respect for those who make courageous decisions in difficult times, I think that person is both courageous and did good... not that they did more good. Again, the amount of good done is measured by the amount of good done in the world... it being hard to do doesn't actually increase the rightness of it being done. Besides, I suspect that sometimes people lock themselves in drawn out moral quandaries because it makes them better people. If it was really hard to do, that means they are good people. Just not the way I see it.

Now, behaving ethically does have an impact on the person. True, sometimes it is a tense and stressful act. But often it is a joyful one. Let me give you a few examples from my life. I think it is good to treat other people with goodwill. If you have ever met me, I was probably happy to see you and talk to you, and most likely, I treated you with respect. I think I am morally obligated to be generally good to people.

Is it a struggle?

Every once in a while... I'll admit it. People who are particularly rude, mean, or frustrating. And yes, there are some people who are just so annoying that its difficult to have a real conversation with them.

But for the very most part, more than 98% of the time, I'd wager, I really enjoy treating people well. Each new situation isn't another challenge; each new person isn't another burden. As I like doing it, every instance becomes an opportunity, a chance to do good.

Another example. I choose not to eat meat, or rather, I try to avoid any action that contributes to the death of an animal. I reason that so long as I can live without it, any animal death on my behalf is unnecessary. I believe that animals have at least enough intrinsic value that I should avoid unnecessary killing. More on this later.

Is is hard?

Yeah, sometimes. Every once in a while I find myself in a restaurant, very hungry, and I'm staring at a menu with little or no vegetarian options. I have to choose between not eating, eating something truly unappetizing, or eating meat. Tough, no lying.

But most of the time, I am not caught in this crossfire. For one, I avoid those restaurants, so that I don't have to have all that stress. But really, I usually eat at home, and I so long as my grocery trip is veg, my options at home are veg. Not only is it not hard, most of the time it's fun. I love when I find a absolutely delicious vegetarian food. Makes me really happy. Also, I feel a special kinship to animals. Might sound weird, but when I meet an animal, I meet them as something of an equal, and I am proud that I will never meet them as meat. It really isn't that strange, actually. If you helped save the people of a town from floods by sandbagging, wouldn't you feel a swell of pride meeting one of those people.

Doing good doesn't have to be torture. Rather, doing good is an opportunity to demonstrate your respect for the value of something or someone. Externally, it is an act of sanctification, where you bestow an expression of worth onto a person, place, or thing. Pretty cool. Internally, it is an act of compassionate transformation, where you hone your sensitivity and reinforce the habit of right action.

I catch the bugs in my apartment and let them go outside. Now, am I committed to the wellbeing of all insects and arachnids... not exactly. But while it is a bit harder to catch a fly then to up an off him, I am not put out by the extra effort. Rather, its feels really good, probably unreasonably good, to let that small creature into the world unharmed.