How do I know What Is The Right Thing To Do?
The United States voters have elected a Presidential leader in 2024 who is a convicted felon, a well known sex abuser, a well documented liar, con man, and manifesting well documented narcissistic psychopathic traits.
It is one thing to observe that this person is of extremely bad character, and another thing to realize and reflect on the fact that the majority of American voters chose this person for their leader. This might lead an observer to wonder about the moral compass that guides Americans values and decisions. What is wrong with these voters’ thinking?
For a society to flourish the people composing that society must have some agreement about shared values and morals otherwise dysfunctional choices, practices, and institutions are created and implemented. Corruption, cynicism, and abuse flourish.
Increasingly, I am skeptical about political labels of Rep and Dem, liberal, conservative, etc. I am more interested in people's values, what really matters to them when it's all said and done.
People are much closer in values than the labels of identification would have you believe.
There are a couple of slogans I like:
We need not think alike to love alike.
Human beings may not share common beliefs but they do share a common experience.
It is not our common experience which tears us apart so much as our beliefs. Have you noticed that there is often a disconnect between what people say they believe and what they want to experience? This disconnect is how I define stupidity. Do people really mean what they say and say what they mean or do they say things merely to grab attention and manipulate others for their own ends? How important a virtue is credibility?
Most people want the same things but are very stupid about what they believe is the best way to achieve them.
Specifically - if you look at quality of life indicators between Blue and Red states they usually measure much higher in Blue states. This observation raises many questions, the main one being why are people in Red states so stupid?
There are many factors that contribute to this stupidity, the main one being the way they were socialized and conditioned to think by their families, communities, and societies with which they identify. This socialization and conditioning occurs through the teaching of a thought system, a mindset. So, what can be done about this conditioning and socialization facilitated by wrong thought systems and mind sets?
There are many strategies for changing people's mindsets and ways of thinking, the primary one being injecting curiosity and questioning. The old bumper sticker says "Question authority" not necessarily in a defiant and rebellious way but from a place of curiosity and desire to better understand which leads to making better choices which provide better experiences.
On the other hand speaking truth to power has no benefit if power has no need for and wants the truth. Have you noticed that truth is in greater supply than the demand?
Truth can be defined as that which can be validated by objective checking and which has consequences.
As we get older with more life experiences one might expect that a person grows in wisdom. Wisdom is developed from reflecting on one's experiences over the course of their lives and understanding better what were the right choices and the wrong choices. Another bumper sticker says "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." As human beings we probably learn best from our pain and suffering but as we, hopefully grow in wisdom, we also learn from our successes and things that were satisfying and fulfilling.
Part of wisdom is the refinement of the moral compass. The moral compass helps the person decide what is the right thing to do. The moral compass is the thought system which helps the person ask the right questions, generate options for action, and make a decision on how to proceed.
Various belief systems have been developed and taught throughout the ages like the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, The Way Of The Tao, the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism, the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, the moral precepts of the moral philosophers especially the Stoics, the words and deeds of prophetic women and men, the knowledge gained from reason and science, the codes of ethics of various professions, occupations, and trades, the direct experience of the Higher Power whatever or whoever we consider that Higher Power to be, and the legal and regulatory requirements and expectations of the authority figures in one’s society that have the power to reward and punish a person or group for their decisions and behavior..
From where do you derive your moral compass? How do you decide what the right thing to do is?
According to Lawrence Kohlberg, the moral psychologist, people operate morally on three levels:
Reward and punishment
Obedience to some code or legal system
Resonance with universal values and rights.
As a person matures, they tend to function morally at higher levels of this tripartite model.
People are easily confused about religious teachings and doctrines and morality. Terrible immoral things have been perpetrated in the name of religion. Our recent US presidential election may be a good example with well over 55% of Christians who voted, voted for a person of very bad character, Donald Trump, to lead their country. Where he said he would lead us and how scares many thoughtful, wise people.
What can be done to improve the moral compass of American society? Religions and the churches don’t seem to be doing the job. Other institutions also have lost support and faith from American society. The arts are often accused of perpetrating immoral behavior and beliefs. Schools have focused, increasingly, on what is called “social emotional learning.” Peer groups, social clubs and organizations have a place in socializing their members in constructive or destructive beliefs, and mindsets. And, then, of course, there is the family with the most fundamental influence on the new members of our society
davidgmarkham.substack.com will be publishing articles on the Moral Compass on Sundays and perhaps more often.
Consider these questions for comment and further study:
What moral model has been most important in your life and how?
What has been the most influential experience in your life to help you learn right from wrong?
When it comes to making tough choices and decisions, what and who matters the most to you in deciding what to do?
A Stoic has no uniform and resembles no stereotype. They are not identifiable by look or by sight or by sound. The only way to recognize them? By their CHARACTER.
Ryan Holiday