Morality (Part 1)

Chapter from “Culture Is Not Your Friend: Sex, Death, Drugs & Madness”.

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.” – Oscar Wilde

Moral fibre, ethical conduct, code of ethics, immorality – these words and expressions carry an inherent judgement, assumptions of right and wrong. But where did we get these ideas in the first place? Where do our morals come from?

In the West, the main source of morality is the Bible, which is supposedly the word of God. What is acceptable and good according to the God of the Bible, is what man should strive towards. Humanism is another more recent source of morality, which sees humans as free agents with human rights, instead of as servants of a demanding God.

Sometimes the two sources blend beautifully together. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and ‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person’ are both saying the same thing. Sometimes the sources are at odds. Where the Bible says don’t, Humanism will say do. There is no gender equality, sexual liberty, freedom of thought or religion in the Bible, but there is in Humanism.

Western culture is the confused child torn between these two parents. Pulling on our left arm is the authoritarian, judgemental parent that will not hesitate to punish us is we fail. Pulling on our right arm is the libertarian, comforting parent that encourages us to live up to our full potential.

Trying to please both at all times is impossible, so we have to choose. What we end up choosing depends on what we value the most, and what we fear the most. Do we fear punishment, or missing out on happiness? Do we value the teachings of religion, or freedom of thought? Whenever you make a choice, those who chose differently will criticise you. Share on X

You can not please everyone.
So stop trying.

I Would Never Do That

There is a particular brand of morality which is neither based upon religion, nor upon humanism. It is based on a a very simple form of personal judgement which goes a little something like this:

” I wouldn’t, therefore you shouldn’t.”

For some weird reason, certain people have this idea that whatever they like is fine, and whatever they do not like should be illegal. Share on X And they have no problem dumping their personal judgements in your face either.

If you are kissing your girlfriend in public, they might comment that you are gross and that it should be illegal to do that it public. If you smoke weed to manage your MS, some busybody will call you a degenerate and tell you that people like you should not be allowed to breed.  

“Nothing brings a group of assholes together faster than something that’s none of their fucking business.”
​- Anonymous source

Unfortunately, these people are not just a nuisance, but sometimes they also get into positions of power where they try to get laws passed that will ban whatever they personally do not like. Why? Because for the most part, they genuinely believe that they are doing you a service.

“I was only trying to help,”
​said the doctor after giving the patient a lobotomy.

Sometimes in the eagerness of wanting to help people, we end up hurting them instead. You may believe that you are doing the right thing, but that is only according to your beliefs. I know this is a point that is difficult to understand, so let me put it into a very simple format:

You love chocolate, so you feed it to the dog. The dog dies.

Just because chocolate is something that you love and that makes you happy does not mean it will do the same for the dog. The same goes for other people. 

Simple enough?

© Merlyn Gabriel Miller