Here is the first of a series of essays on Morality taken from my blog, Tale of Mankind.
I have often considered this question in my mind, as to why we cast a net of morality over our actions. I know that the modern human being will nearly always try to place some type of moral discernment upon each and every one of their actions. This scale of moral discernment which we place on our actions is quite dynamic and transmutable. Several major constituents of the extent and design of our scale include our current economic status, social status, and other environmental related factors. For example, if one grew up in poverty and was forced to scavenge for food to survive, he or she may have less of an argument against stealing food from supermarkets (note less of an argument), and thus have a different scale of moral discernment as compared to one who grew up in grandeur.
Returning to that question which I have pondered, I must consider human disposition. After considering this, I believe that we place the question of morality upon our actions because we have evolved with it sewn into our very character, into the genetic makeup that makes us human. Morality has become part of our being. And when I attempt to examine the cause behind that which we call morality, it becomes apparent that humans name actions moral or immoral to satisfy some desire to do right. This desire, whether one to comply with some sort of natural law or our conscience or some other undeclared cause, is the ultimate driving-force behind morality.
The problem with our morality, as I will discuss in the essays to come, is that our standards have declined to an extreme low. Crime, hatred, sin, and pure evil, all forms of immorality, have burrowed their way into the dwellings of man in our modern society. Once upon a time, our moral discernment acted as our defense that contained and obstructed the advance of immorality.
However, there is hope. Although morality, and therefore immorality, is a part of our human nature, there is that desire that we all have, at one level or another, to effect beneficial change upon our society. I have faith that the desire to do good will overcome the desire to do bad, that Jekyll will overcome Hyde (despite the book’s ending), that mankind will become that better race that we all envision.