What Morality? Yours? Mine?

Mark Greathouse

(11/2021) Politicians these days deliver epic lies for political gain to feed contrived portfolios of divisiveness and hate. Sadly, the lies and the hatred have metastasized into the general population. Moral? Amoral? Immoral? As John F. Kennedy said, "The greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and realistic." Lies? Myths? Truths or half-truths? Where has our nation’s moral bedrock gone and how do we recover it?

Morality’s Latin root is mores, meaning character or virtuous conduct. Morality connects with integrity, an uncompromising adherence to the lofty values, beliefs, and principles that an individual or group of individuals claim to hold. And I daresay, morality is inextricably linked with and forms the foundation of ethics or ethos, a set of principles or rules of conduct. What holds this fragile combination together? The "glue" is conscience (conscientia and scire meaning to know with). Conscience is the knowledge of good or bad, right or wrong. Where do you find that knowledge? Parents? Peers? Culture? Religion?

What’s the nature of our immorality? Well, there’s selfishness, as today's moral relativism is rooted in moral values having become a matter of personal opinion or private judgment rather than something grounded in objective truth. Mostly, it's about immediate gratification; the "I, me, mine" thinking of narcissistic hedonism. But, feasting on ourselves is a sparse meal. Then again, the cause could be the end justifies the means thinking, especially whereby our most crucial life longings will never be met. Unmet longings weaken people’s resolve to behave morally, as they become easily sucked into immoral behaviors for which they have no solid defense. They are easily duped into ideologies masquerading as facts. It’s regrettable yet beneficial that immoral behavior is like scar tissue; it’s always there and never forgotten. And I suggest that ignoring immorality is like solving a car problem by simply disconnecting the "check engine" light.

Do you think you can create your own morals? On what basis, what foundation would you base your self-developed morals? How do you decide what is moral or immoral, right of wrong? Are you actually that wise? Morals aren’t DIY.

French historian Alexis De Tocqueville’s observed of the early United States, "Freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faiths, faiths require freedom, which requires virtue, and so on ad infinitum." Buttress that against George Orwell’s dire satire in his dystopian 1984, "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." Why, a person might think Orwell was talking about today’s America. It doesn’t take a mental giant to transpose Orwell’s fictional satire to the mouths of today’s politicians.

Lies are a huge manifestation of immorality. Russian collusion! Successful Afghanistan withdrawal! No border crisis! Urban riots merely harmless protests! Etcetera. Mark Twain said, "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason." There are roughly half a dozen primary reasons politicians especially are able to sustain their lies: narcissism, blind loyalty of followers, truth avoidance or fear, commitment to the lie (despite contrary proofs), built-in cognitive biases or perceptions, and repetition such that the lie is perceived as truth.

Lying’s not confined to politicians. There’s academia, news media, fact checkers, and more. Heed Socrates’s words in Plato’s The Phaedrus as it mirrors today’s new media, "you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."

Morality is essential to our success in all aspects of life as individuals and as a nation. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge said, "If we are too weak to take charge of our own morality, we shall not be strong enough to take charge of our own liberty." Alas, we are but human beings; temptations surround us. Immoral behaviors range from the sublime to the horrifying: cheating on tests, stealing office supplies, hacking computers, plagiarizing, spying, bribing, murdering? It can be a very long list. Notably, morality is a finite passage with limitations, whereas immorality has seemingly infinite options for utterly destructive outcomes. Are capitalism or socialism immoral? No. Any perceived immorality is grounded in how those economic/political ends are achieved…lies…slander…murder…censorship…victimization…division…you get the picture. Can our nation hold up under it all?

We live in a nation where many folks are being indoctrinated to lower their life expectations, to be unconcerned with winning or losing, to not aspire to rise from their condition, to not be exceptional, and to hand life’s playing field over to those who would level it for them. They begrudge their existence and are easily persuaded to join radical organizations using most any means fair or foul to supposedly achieve the unachievable: utopia.

Thankfully, most folks strive to be better versions of themselves. We haven’t seen many popular courses featuring self-ruination. Yet, we seem immersed in an increasingly divisive culture in which folks elect moral scoundrels to political office and then scream in protest when they lie and turn out to be our moral judges, juries, and executioners. The answer to resolving the issue of achieving a high moral standard in America lies within each and every one of us.

I suggest that whether you’re a person of Christian faith or not, great biblical advice can be found in Matthew 7:24-27 where we are advised to build our house (e.g., morality) on rock rather than shifting sands that are easily washed away by life’s temptations. Do you build your morals on shifting sands or solid rock? Are you without fault? Do you violate prevailing morality? Referencing Matthew 23:25-26: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also." Think metaphorically of the cup and dish as your morality.

Morality is often a byproduct of our perceived self-worth. Imagine life like a financial balance sheet with assets on one side and liabilities on the other. Assets minus liabilities equals worth or value. Assets include positives (faith, means (career/business), security, etc.). Liabilities include destructive character traits (pride, greed, lust, fear, etc.) and addictions (substance abuse, physical abuse, debt, pornography, gambling, etc.). Self worth equals liabilities subtracted from assets to determine your value to yourself and the world around you. The more assets and fewer liabilities you have, the greater your perceived value. Higher value increases the likelihood that you ascribe to a correspondingly high set of morals. Do your assets exceed your liabilities? Do you consider yourself a moral person? By what standard?

Thus, we ask "what morality?" Yours? Theirs? God’s? Choose wisely between the moral and the immoral.

Read past edition of the Tumbleweeds

Read other articles by Mark Greathouse