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THOUGHTS ON MORALITY :: 11/29/05 This "rant" is actually an essay I wrote for college applications in response to a quote. I rather liked it, however, so I thought I would post it here. “Krushchev’s mother instilled in him a sense of rectitude and responsibility, a conscience that carried with it the capacity for guilt and shame.” --William C. Taubman Can man be moral without being instilled with a sense of guilt and shame? When looking throughout history, I see the various ways man has tried to define morality. Most have relied not on the innate goodness of man, but on the innate fear in men of punishment. Government regulates through law, punishing wrongdoing with jail, fines, or physical harm. Mainstream religion is less physical with its consequences, but they amount to the same thing; some regulate morality through threats of hell, damnation, and suffering, while others rely on guilt should one go against the Creator’s will. While the principles of crime and punishment undeniably provide grounding for the codes of right and wrong, I believe there is more to morality than that. Krushchev’s mother had one thing right: morality is defined by responsibility. I have a responsibility to do what is best for humanity, as I am a part of it. My evolutionary purpose is, in an abstract sense, to further humanity, and so I am responsible for the wellbeing of mankind. This is why I give money to charity. This is why I give my time and energy to the ACLU. This is why I give canned food to the homeless. And yet, is this not driven by guilt and shame? I, like Kruschev, have been instilled with a certain sense of rectitude and responsibility, and when I act against this sense, I feel disgraced. I don’t hold religious views, nor do I trust the government’s dictum of right and wrong. Yet, I still have a feeling of guilt and shame when I do something I feel is “wrong.” Perhaps this sense is innate. Guilt and shame are not the cause of morality, but the result of being a moral person. I am reminded of a short poem I recently read called “If There is No God,” by Czeslaw Milosz. “Even if there were no God,” said Milosz, “I would still have my brother, and I would still be my brother’s keeper.” |