Moral and Ethics
Ethics as defined in the Webster’s dictionary is:
1: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation
2a: a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values
b: the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group
c: a guiding philosophy
d: a consciousness of moral importance
3: a set of moral issues or aspects (such as rightness)
Religious people follow many moral mandates based on their religions. Different religions have different sets of moral mandates. Believers of one religion may disagree with some of the moral codes of another religion. Atheists are often shocked by those moral codes and refuse to do those things which may seem profitable to oneself and the society. Who is right and who is wrong? Surely, not all are right and not all are wrong. It is completely likely that all are not right.
What Libertarianism Is (according to Mises institute) “The libertarian creed rests upon one central axiom: that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else. This may be called the “nonaggression axiom.” “Aggression” is defined as the initiation of the use or threat of physical violence against the person or property of anyone else. Aggression is therefore synonymous with invasion.” Most Libertarians, if not all, believe this is the one and only ethical code that is essential for the proper functioning of a society whereas no moral standard should exist.
I am not a Libertarian, but I agree with their view on moral and ethics. Some people have no ethics at all and have no principles. They act spontaneously, just doing whatever seems like a good idea at the time. There are others who have flawed moral codes that will consistently lead them in the wrong direction. The social value to oneself and the society may be questionable.
If we place great emphasis on personal accountability, each and every person should conduct himself in such a way that will make him lovely in the eyes of the people around him in order to deserve their love. Often it means he must be a loving person who loves those deserving his love. He should not be expected to love everybody equally. Anyone who doesn’t deserve to be loved should not be loved; this is to encourage him to conduct himself in the proper ways. Otherwise, he will start to have an entitlement mentality and assumes that others have the duty and obligation to supply a sense of wellbeing to him unconditionally. Are religious people supposed to love others unconditionally, regardless of the virtue or moral conducts of the recipients of the love? Wouldn’t it be counterproductive to the wellbeing of the society as a whole?
We should not standardize a set of moral codes or make them as mandates to demand obedience from everybody. Nobody needs love from everybody. We only need love from somebody; therefore, a set of moral codes for the close community is good enough. We must respect the right of other communities to have their own set of moral codes. The set of moral codes should remain a guiding philosophy and not hard rules which can be used to demand obedience from anybody. A person is not loved if he violates the moral codes; this is already a punishment and no authorities should be allowed to inflict more harm to him, physically or verbally. People are united by love and forgiveness; not by rules and regulations. And, intelligent people don’t need the promise of Heaven to see the merits of good deeds.
Tolerance is the power to forgive (恕). If the schools and parents are powerless to forgive, how can they expect the children to have tolerance? One day, Confucius told his disciple, Zeng Shen: “Shen, my philosophies can all be related by one fundamental principle.” Zeng Shen replied: “Understood.” After Confucius left, the other disciples asked Zeng Shen: “What is the meaning?” Zeng Shen said: “The philosophies of our teacher can all be related to Honesty and Forgiveness.” (子曰： “参乎，吾道一以贯之。” 曾子曰： “唯。” 子出，门人问曰： “何谓也？” 曾子曰： “夫子之道，忠恕而已矣。”) Honesty (忠) means truly coming from the heart (忠于事，忠于言，忠于人，忠于己). Loyalty is an act of dishonesty if it doesn’t come from the heart; although some people like it that way regardless. When you are honest, to yourself and to others, everything you said comes from your heart. Nothing is artificial or pretentious, although you may not be right all the time. You will be honest to the king as much as being honest to the people. You will be honest in doing your job, and never make any promise that you don’t intend to keep. You will be honest to yourself, be who you are and not pretend to be someone you are not. If your heart is full of the capacity to forgive, you will be able to tolerate differences and not insist on conformance, although you like people to show good moral conduct.
Another day, Confucius told another disciple, Zi Gong: “Ci, do you think I am someone who learns a lot and becomes knowledgeable by memorizing everything that I’ve learnt?” Zi Gong replied: “I think so. Isn’t it true?” Confucius said: “Not really. I have one fundamental principle to relate and bind together all my knowledge.” (子曰： “赐也，女以予为多学而识之者与？” 对曰： “然，非与？” 曰： “非也！予一以贯之。”) Anything that has nothing to do with Honesty and Forgiveness isn’t Confucianism even if Confucians say it is. You don’t have to become knowledgeable by memorizing a lot of things that you’ve learnt. You just need to let Honesty and Forgiveness guide you in your words and actions, and in making decisions to move or to stop (言行举止). Confucius said: “Compassion includes being respectful, forgiving, truthful, hardworking, and benevolent. Being respectful to everybody will avoid being humiliated. Being forgiving will be loved by everybody. Being truthful will be trusted by everybody. Being hardworking will bring success. Being benevolent (i.e. showing the people how they can benefit themselves by following certain techniques or methods) will be able to influence others to work for common good.” (恭、宽、信、敏、惠。恭则不侮，宽则得众，信则人任焉，敏则有功，惠则足以使人。) It is a self-interest to be a compassionate person. Self-love or selfishness is not wrong so long as it doesn’t break the laws. Harangues of preachers for people to show selflessness and compassion are unnecessary.
Some children who are bullied by the schools, parents, and peers may become another kind of bullies. Because they are different (don’t like to follow “rules” but they are not violent), and they refuse to change their behaviors in the so-called “socialization” or complying with the norms, they become very defensive. They feel threatened by people who are “normal” or comply with the norms. They become intolerant of “normal” people. As time goes, the allergic condition becomes acute and they may attack first upon encountering “normal” people, like snakes biting humans who inadvertently walk by. They may think that they have to choose between being the bullies or the victims, and there is no third choice. They think “good people are bullied by people, non-violent horses are ridden by people” (人善被人欺，马善被人骑).
Do you feel sad to ask: “Where is the love?” Can you feel the love? There is a shortage of unconditional love (慈), but people mistaken it as a shortage of compassion (仁) and righteousness (义); hence they call for everybody to show compassion and righteousness, instead of love. A person with a lot of love will not be an angry person. It is good for him and everybody around him.
Moral guides can be useful in educating children to understand the wholesome and unwholesome karma which can lead to good and bad fruitions, respectively. The ethical code of “nonaggression principle” must be enforced by laws. Standardization of moral codes for the whole population of a country or the world can lead to disharmony, therefore it is a wrong thing to do. No moral standards should exist in that sense. Diversity should be celebrated instead of seeing it as a problem and start desiring to force unity of thinking or institutionalization of groupthink. Moral codes must not be weaponized; otherwise, it will yield the opposite effects to the original purposes of the moral codes. If the society has a lot of love and forgiveness, moral codes can help to maintain and enhance personal happiness as well as societal harmony. These are good social values to oneself and the society. Love and forgiveness are much more important than moral codes.
Moral standard is such a scary term to me.
RESILIENT KID 