The moral compass is broken.

The events of the past few weeks and the violence we have seen has put us all on edge.

I have thought long and hard about what could save society and change the direction we are heading, which in my opinion the decay of society. We are living in horrific times. Every day now almost, there is some horrendous attack or mass murder or scandal, and it seems like its just getting worse and worse. Whats notable is that its happening from the micro scale to the macro scale in society, from girl scouts having their cookie money stolen to billions of dollars in theft through financial malfeasance to ethnic cleansing, religous turmoil, wars or threat of war. Its not any one group, race, sex, age group, ethnicity or culture that is solely behind it. Its happening in all groups, all walks of life, all cultures. So I thought further and tried to imagine a commonality in all of this, a force thats driving it, that permeates our global society.

What I came up with is in many of us, in varying levels of severity, there is a failure of our mental machinery to differentiate between what is moral and what is not, what is right and what is wrong. Its like some people are no longer able to even conceptualize right and wrong, and the result of this failure in cognition is that they are doing some pretty violent and destructive things.

For a civilization to thrive there need to be some basic rules:

1. Do not kill.
2. Do not steal.
3. Do not lie.
4. do not show jealousy towards the results of hard work.
5. Be honest.
6. Take care of your children
7. Take care of your parents.
8. Do no violence towards others.
9. Make an effort to take actions that benefit the common good and future generations.
10. Respect the Earth.

You see these rules in different religions, different cultures through the ages, but they are all pretty much the same rules. For many centuries mankind at least made the attempt to strive to do good. To resist violence. To show compassion. We have seen failings of these things but there has also been progress.


But now, the ONE rule that seems to apply is THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS. We see it in business, politics, societal interactions. People seem the rationalize that as long as they get what they want, its ok to use any means to get it as long as they can get away with it. Power, money, relationships, all see it in play. I think there are three things driving it.

1. FEAR. People are fearful of the future and the world situation and rationalize that immoral or unethical acts are justified if it grants them some sense of security. Getting rich on Wall Street is a good example of this.

2. Loss of moral institutions. Churches are emptying out for decades now. Less people believe in God, or that a supreme being is going to judge them and make them accountable for their actions. Also I think the fact that society is becoming less well read, and more adept at reading on the internet and sound bytes and trends in popular culture. As a result we have less to draw from when making ethical calculations or thinking abstractly about morality.

3. COMPETITION. The population is skyrocketing. There are less jobs to go around. Less opportunities to be found. People feel cheated in some way bv this and it helps them rationalize ruthless behavior to get what they want. The law of the jungle, and the jungle is getting more crowded.


How to we recover from this? First I think we have to accept that our society has a crisis of conscience. Then we have to adapt a new set of rules to fit the new structure of our society. A set of rules that are fair to everyone. And we have to have the courage to draw the line on what is acceptable and what is not in society. I think a nice start to that one is to end capital punishment and deadly force. We should develop effective technologies for law enforcement that utilize non lethal force. We need to state that LIFE IS SACRED. All peoples lives, regardless of color, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, or level of wealth. I think just the inference of the idea that we ALL HAVE WORTH will radiate out into our society and have a cascade effect and heal some deep wounds.

We have to start soon because the way things are heading, we dont have a lot of time.

Well thats it, just wanted to get that off my chest. Good luck to us all.

a reply to: openminded2011

Help others in need.

Not on your list.

I really don't care about r.n.o.g.. If I can help a person in need, I will.

My moral compass was raised that way.

I agree, but I have to add, Stay out of other peoples business. If It doesn't affect you, it doesn't matter what others are doing. Be it a movie star( if you actually care) or your neighbor.

I don't understand what is happening today. But it scares the heck out of me. We are all humans. That is the only race that should matter. Respect each other. Be kind.


It really isn't that hard.

originally posted by: NewzNose
a reply to: openminded2011

Help others in need.

Not on your list.

I really don't care about r.n.o.g.. If I can help a person in need, I will.

My moral compass was raised that way.

I think that would be #9 on my list. Helping others is paramount. We have to instill it in our children as well.

a reply to: chiefsmom

If I witness an elderly woman being knocked around for her purse, am I to say " not my business"?

I'm gonna call 911 and get my own self injured.

a reply to: NewzNose

The act of "looking the other way" when an injustice takes place is in itself a moral failing. We HAVE to stop doing it. We cannot be spectators in our own societies failings any longer IMHO.

a reply to: openminded2011

If we don't open ourselves to recognize another's cry for help, we are not going to have another help us when we are the one in need. We are human. WE NEED...EACH OTHER.

Might just be a hug, a tissue when there are tears, or $100 bill to a family who hasn't enough money for gas and food...giving is paramount.

a reply to: NewzNose

No, you jump in and beat the crap out of that POS.

I meant whom your neighbor is going to bed with. How high their fence is. That kind of nosey neighbor crap that everyone now seems to worry about.

But what your are talking about is covered by taking care of people.

a reply to: NewzNose

One of the foundations of Buddhism, is that to end your own suffering, you must address the suffering of others. The fact that we allow a lot of social injustice is one of the BIG reasons our society is in trouble. If we allow the mistreatment of a human being, we are opening the door to our own possible mistreatment. I do believe there are in fact a lot of good people who are compassionate, but we have to start viewing compassion as a virtue instead of some kind of weakness.

a reply to: chiefsmom

I really don't associate with people who have a " Gladys Kravitz" lifestyle, but I concur.

The message since the eighties has been

Don't get involved. You might get hurt. Leave it to the Police. They are professionals.

This 'Don't directly help' message has been the one message that has fragmented society.

I know the police are not all bad and yet the good ones stand by and do nothing while citizens are gunned down day after horrific day.

So now, the public, those with the Second Amendment as their bible, are pushing back.

It was as inevitable as the sun coming up to start a new day.

P

originally posted by: NewzNose
a reply to: chiefsmom

I really don't associate with people who have a " Gladys Kravitz" lifestyle, but I concur.

I don't know what Gladys kravitz lifestyle even means.
LOL OMG Is that a Bewitched reference.

Forgive me, I'm old, and have had a few

a reply to: openminded2011

I lost my sister, 57 years old, in April. She was a practicing Buddhist and a non-practicing psychologist.

I always snickered at the thought of her going on her "retreats".
Going through her belongings was a WOW moment. She had the purity of heart I never paid attention to....she was always just my older sister.

Compassion even when you are in pain, is key.
Love of all always is the answer.

a reply to: chiefsmom

YOU just called me old!

Yes, it's a Bewitched reference.

a reply to: openminded2011

1. Do not kill. 
2. Do not steal. 
3. Do not lie. 
4. do not show jealousy towards the results of hard work. 
5. Be honest. 
6. Take care of your children 
7. Take care of your parents. 
8. Do no violence towards others. 
9. Make an effort to take actions that benefit the common good and future generations. 
10. Respect the Earth.

I'll take 1,2,6 and 8. The rest are legislated morality.

Unless by rules you meant good rules to live by and not laws. In which case I will agree with all of them.

a reply to: rockintitz

They are rules to live by. The one I would add is "dance like nobody is watching".

a reply to: NewzNose

Haha then I'd like to add:

Eat meat!
Shoot guns!
Drink beer!

I know I know, typical 'murican here

I agree with all you said BUT

Many years ago I read the bible verse (I am not a bible believer but do believe wisdom can be found in many places) The verse was "He who knows to do right and does it not, to him it is sin".

Telling someone something is right or wrong doesn't get it done. They have to know deep within themselves something is right or wrong.

It seems to me to be a deep seated culture that varies from what many of us consider "right'. And it will take time and never be perfected (whatever that is) to suit all of us.

a reply to: openminded2011

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh . . .

The oligarchy decided long a go to replace a moral foundation with an insane one:

1. There is no right or wrong.
2. Man is nothing more than a rat, a pigeon, a radish or a rock.

3. If it feels good, do it and have no thought of any consequences.
4. When you're dead, you rot, like road-kill. Period.

5. Forget being responsible, working heart, considering consequences for your choices and actions. The Tyrannical Nanny state will take care of you cradle to grave . . . [small print] and control every aspect of your lives in the process.

6. Be particularly quick and energetic to hump everything that wiggles however, whenever and wherever the mood strikes you. Call it freedom regardless of how much your hedonistic compulsions enslave you.

7. Throw off all constraints of any and all traditional values and institutions because we are trashing them all in our race toward the New World of meticulously controlled slaves. But we'll call it THE NEW FREEDOM and THE NEW PEACE.

8. Suck up to the shallow, absurd, lewd, maniacal, violent, vengeful, bloody, chaotic, ruthless, arrogant, greedy . . . in movies, TV, novels, computer games . . . enjoy the addictive dopamine highs that such enslavements foster. It makes you easier to distract from the major social trashing we are working on under the table. And, it makes it easier to manipulate you 12 ways to Sunday any way we choose for whatever reasons we choose.

9. Exalt in the pseudo-god of INDEPENDENCE at all costs. It's inane, stupid, suicidal, socially disastrous and stupid but your doing it also helps make you easier to manipulate and channel into culturally destroying paths.

10. Forget about family. We are working overtime to destroy it, anyway. The state will decide who can conceive and in what test tubes. The state will rear the children. All you have to do is your slave job; take your Soma and hump whatever or whomever you will.

Won't it be loverly!
/sarc

Well, I don't feel the whole world is falling apart......
but it seems to me that the USA is in a state of growing discontent and internal conflict, which, if you are in the middle of, it must seem like the end of the world. I feel a lot of sympathy for that, it must be stressful as heck!

But the problem of morals is that they are not universal and static. They are what a society agrees upon. It doesn't so much matter which ones they are, as long as everyone follows the same framework of values and ethics.

I think the way this thread has started already illustrates this- in some countries, the ethics focus upon "being your brothers keeper" - in which everyone is expected to pay attention to each other. People stare, they watch who is coming and going at the neighbors, talk about who does what. This way, if an old person has fallen and is in distress alone in their home, someone will hear the gossip that they didn't go buy their bread as they usually do every morning, and go find them. (for example)

A lot of behaviors can be sorted and channeled just through social pressure, and the official powers of police and courts do not need to get involved.

It works in their system.

In the US, it wouldn't because we value independence, individual responsibility and power, so this would get in the way.
(old people don't want to be bothered by neighbors knocking on the door, people want to be able to sue others for lots of money).

The hard work ethic, as well, is part of the american values, which makes sense to us, but in some countries, they just see it as a principle that makes slaves out of people- convinces them to work too hard for too little, for corrupt fat cats, (and to say thank you for the opportunity).

From where I sit, I think that the problem is simply that the moral compass is a bit screwy because the north is changing place. There are disagreements on what the values and ethics should be. There needs to be more consensus, but I am afraid that won't happen quickly because you have a media and basic mentality set upon polarization in all issues. I am afraid the US is headed for civil war eventually.