Crimes and Misdemeanors
Terri Murray gets to the core of ethics with Socrates and Woody Allen
Clearly, if the Jewish God does in fact exist, having set into motion a series of events that resulted in Delores being murdered doesn’t bode well for Judah’s soul. On the other hand, from the perspective of any number of Humanist ideologies, murder is surely the secular equivalent of a mortal sin. His soul may be irrelevant but his behavior is still thought to be objectively immoral. And he shall be punished accordingly if caught. And, if not caught, the deed will still weigh heavily on his conscience.
What then makes his Aunt’s “cynical” approach to acts of murder – even genocide! – so ominous is that the implications of moral nihilism for the “human condition” becomes brutally clear. And, in the end, Judah “goes on with his life” – a satisfying and fulfilling life – as though Delores had never existed at all.
But: all the more ominnous is that Judah is still shown to be a cultured, civilized, decent and accomplished man. The incident with Delores was a stark exception.
What then of moral nihilism in the minds of those who were and are brutal and savage down to the core?
I think what is crucial here is how it depicts my point about “I” in the is/ought world reconfiguring given new experiences. There is before and after the murder of Delores. Just as there was the before and after the affair itself. But it’s one thing to rationalize adultery, another thing altogether to rationalize a cold blooded murder.
Or, perhaps, not? Over time, Judah manages to rationalize both. Others may not manage to rationalize either. It’s all embedded in one’s own existential trajectory. Some sociopaths start out given one or another moral compass, while others can experience a childhood in which there never really is a moral compass at all.
There are as many possible paths here as there are particular human beings out in particular worlds understood in particular ways.