Thursday, September 8, 2011

Morality: The Truth Isn't Simple

Morality is defined as behavior that reflects the difference between right and wrong. But morality actually has many different definitions according to our society. Some people might say morality is culturally determined and certain culture's values should be considered wrong just because someone else's culture is different. For example, women in the Middle East have to wear scarves around their heads to cover their hair and entire face except for their eyes. They're not allowed to leave their house without their husband by their side and the men are allowed to abuse them whenever they feel like it. But if we were to step in and try to change that wouldn't we ourselves be considered wrong for imposing our own personal morals on others? For generations, society has depended on its ancestors’' beliefs and passed them down which basically means social conformity has been created. Another factor is competition; ever since they cavemen existed we all compete in order to survive even if that meant stealing or harming one another. That of course we before morality was even determined but basically we did whatever we wanted to ad eventually learned from the consequences.

Someone can be moral and commit an immoral action simply because they're unaware that is wrong in the first place. It’s all based on a person’s opinion for example a few hundred years ago we thought slavery was perfectly acceptable because it provided people with wealth and power by gaining control over inferior people. But now a majority of people believe blacks should not be kept as slaves, not just according to the Constitution but to Christians as well. It's perhaps one of the few issues government and religion issues agree with. Whoever doesn't believe in God is left with the need to make decisions in order to survive.  Either way both in the religious and political perspective we all want what would constitute a good life. Without moral codes our societies would crumble and chaos would occur.

In conclusion, morality is not simple. With our multi-cultured and multi-religious world people have their own personal beliefs and those who can't express their beliefs spend their lives dedicated to their religion/culture. However, people should be able to choose their own paths and luckily in the United States most of us have the freedom to do that and thus create our own moral codes. Since we cannot see our futures we do try to improve our world everyday but we're never going to create a perfect world because as long as there are imperfect people there will be imperfect societies. Some help themselves and others also help our society. Henry David Thoreau quotes (http://bit.ly/d8Ofb)"Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something".