Impulsestorm

Tommy's Moral Code
by Tommy C. Li on 06.19.2004
Updated on 12.19.2004
I realize that I will sometimes do certain things - things that I should not do. When I think about it, my action is completely wrong. I hold myself to fairly strong morals. I believe in absolute morals - actually.

I will frequently have a lower-brain impulse to hurt or steal. I will then try and backwards rationalize this action.

Example: I should steal this computer because I'd put it to far better use than the school.

I don't have the benefit of a religious upbringing. A religious upbringing usually provides a good moral foundation. Unfortunately, religion can also be the source of dogmatism - so I'm glad I'm free of religion sometimes. I digress.

I need to codify my principles - so I don't follow my baser instincts and backwards rationalize it to myself. That is only for animals and the weak-willed. And also to protect myself. If I do immoral things, I will realize it later and then feel like shit. This is not desireable.

I will add to this - slowly.



Golden Rule
This is just a cover-all rule - until I add more.

Stealing
I can't steal. When I steal something, I am depriving them of their property. More importantly, I'm depriving them of their peace of mind - I'm depriving them of the ability to leave their stuff lying around and not worry about it. That is the far more valuable thing I am stealing.

Respect for Privacy
This passage I read in English3 best explains it:
I wrote about this in The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Jan Prochazka, an important figure of the Prague Spring, came under heavy surveillance after the Russian invasion of 1968. At the time, he saw a good deal of another great opposition figure, Professor Vaclav Cerny, with whom he liked to drink and talk. All their conversations were secretly recorded, and I suspect the two friends knew it and didn't give a damn. But one day in 1970 or 1971, with the intent to dicredit Prochazka, the police began to broadcast these conversations as a radio serial. For the police it was an audacious, unprecedented act. And, surprisingly: it nearly succeeded; instantly Prochazka was discredited: because in private, a person says all sorts of things, slurs friends, uses coarse language, acts silly, tells dirty jokes, repeats himself, makes a companion laugh by shocking him with outrageous talk, floats heretical ideas he'd never admit in public, and so forth. Of course, we all act like Prochazka, in private we badmouth our friends and use coarse language; that we act different in private than in public is everyone's most conspicuous experience, it is the very ground of the life of the individual; curiously, this obvious fact remains unconscious, unacknowledged, forever obscured by lyrical dreams of the transparent glass house, it is rarely understood to be the value one must defend beyond all others. Thus only gradually did people realize (though their rage was all the greater) that the real scandal was not Prochazka's daring talk but the rape of his life; they realized (as if by electric shock) that private and public are two essentially different worlds and that respect for that difference is the indispensable condition, the sine qua non, for a man to live free; that the curtain separating these two worlds is not to be tampered with, and that curtain-rippers are criminals.


Peer Pressure
I realize that I frequently instigate dangerous and possibly illegal activities among my friends. Usually, it's my idea, and I want some companionship when I do these projects. It's probably uncool to incite people to do things that can get them into trouble.

There are mitigating factors, however. While I do put on heavy peer pressure, they are still responsible for their own actions. And at the end of it, when the fruits of our labor ripen, they're always ecstatic. And also - while the overall activities are dangerous, I'm always very careful about the actual execution and details.

I suppose this is a gray area. Until I get that resolved, I will continue to do as I have done.


Comments
Religion


I've been raised Catholic all my life (I'm even an altar boy), and you are right in saying it instills upstanding morals in people. Assuming it's by fear is a pretty unfair generalization, suited primarily for our grandparents' generation. Anyways, different discussion for a different time.


- Posted by J.C. Portanova on 06.22.2004

Okay


Alright - since you're more qualified to talk about religion, I'll retract my statement that religion is enforced with fear.


- Posted by Tommy Li on 07.21.2004

Stealing


As much as i agree there- its a bit of a habit of mine to leech food off people, and i do so with very few qualms. I think this makes me a gigantic hipocrit.


- Posted by John Kevill on 09.27.2004

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