Morality
I recently took a “morality quiz”. Although I usually eschew such things, I was curious what kind of results it would return. They weren’t quite what I expected. According to the questions posed on this quiz and the ‘professional opinions’ of the creators, I am apparently “entirely permissible” in my morality. Ummmm… huh?
That result baffled me – for about 5 minutes. I thought it was a bit unusual to have received such a result… until I thought about the questions asked, and how and why my answers were decided. The questions dealt with a variety of cultural expectations and social stigma and asked what your views concerning them are. Now that’s fine, and some guidelines for behavior are certainly a good thing to have in a civilized society, but social expectations vary widely culture to culture and person to person, and tend to be based on the personal beliefs and experiences of each person within their culture. The questions (and answers) on this quiz seemed very opinionated and extremely limited in their scope. I couldn’t help but think that morality is frequently decided upon by a select few people or organizations – usually those in power, and with their own agendas for issuing their moral suggestions to the populace.
Another way of putting this may be “Opinion or Judgment + Desire for Control (+ Agenda) = Morality”…? Well, yes. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, morality is “The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct“. What the dictionary neglects to say is “whose standards” and what qualifies as “right” or “good” conduct. Definitions of these things are quite subjective, aren’t they? And again, they are influenced by the various societies and cultures from around the world. Some cultures eat things that are taboo in others. Does that mean it’s immoral for the people of that culture to eat things which are taboo elsewhere in the World? Or what about the little girl who pushes another kid off the swing because she wants to play on it… is that immoral? Selfish, yes. Mean-spirited, perhaps. But morally wrong? If instead of 6 this girl was 16, would that be morally wrong?
Is our morality determined by external, physical acts and actions, judged by others, or is morality determined instead by internal factors – by intent, by honor, by awareness, judged by ourselves? Is there a single morality for all of humanity, or is morality a personal definition and a personal decision? Is morality variable- to humanity, to the individual, to the circumstances? I tend to think it’s largely a personal matter based on intent and circumstance, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a “higher” morality to be found, or that we shouldn’t strive to be the most conscientious humans we can be.
… And maybe we just make it more complicated than it really needs to be. Perhaps a simple “Do unto Others” would suffice.
“What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others.”
— Confucius
“No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive”
-Gandhi
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