Standard Morality

Often when I do something I consider "noble" or "good" or "altruistic", my mind wanders into the fields of self-approval and pats myself on the back, and automatically gets to thinking about what a good person I am, or about the good karma that I have gained from my selfless action. I dislike this reaction of mine very much.

It assumes that näive moral standpoint that we are all like Kindergarteners who deserve to be rewarded by their "good" actions and punished by their "bad", one closely linked to traditional western religion. That there is something or someone out there that knows better than us, a universal judge of right and wrong, and that we should strive to adhere to it in order to be "better people" or whatever. That all of our actions are constantly and thoroughly observed by something else, that always knows better than us.

And I don't and I don't and I don't don't don't like it.

Because there is no moral standard. There is nothing absolutely right or wrong. One is the only true judge of one's own actions, and only each person knows the details of his or her own situation best. There is help, there is hurt. There is love, there is hate. There is happiness, there is sadness. There is hunger, there is death. There is warmth, there is cold. There is more, there is less. But "right" and "wrong" are labels, helpful at expressing a sentiment, but subjective to each person in each situation at each given time. And our society has made a map from specific actions and thoughts and feelings to these two labels, telling us what to do and not to do, what to think, what to feel, what to see, what to ignore. The map of standard morality. This false model of rules of right and wrong in an ever-changing world.

I will not refute that this moral map is a convenient manner to maintain order in a system plagued with poor education and rampant vices. I am aware that these rather abstract matters are much more comfortably perused from my side of the skew, one exposed to a rich diversity of ideas, places, people, and resources, and that a large portion of the population would much rather have a daily loaf of bread than listen to the best philosophical treatises in history. They'd probably rather not listen to the treatises at all. (I'm giving the general populace rather low credit, but it serves to express my point). It is not my goal to criticize these people, their actions, their values or even the system. My goal is to reflect on my own behavior and paradigms.

I think that those of us who have the privilege of thinking, should think. Those who have the privilege of learning, should learn. Those who can improve in a manner they feel is best, should. "Should" - a rather poor choice of word, considering what this post is about. But this is my "should". It's what I feel, what I think, and it is what I want to apply to myself and to my Life. Thus this text of self-expression, which attempts to stare at my incrusted traditional moral standard long and hard enough to allow me to replace it with something else. How about with awareness, and with empathy. And with confidence in my own actions. And with the knowledge that there is nothing and no one out there that can dictate judgement upon the correctness or the righteousness or the morality of my decisions, actions, thoughts, or feelings. That is not to say that I should stop listening and taking advice, for it's an easy slope down to foolish self-righteousness from there.

So yeah...