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But in a country where everyone lives in camps of contradicting morality; logically, at least half of those people are wrong.
Of course our natural instinct is to say, “Yes! Exactly. The other guys are wrong!” Not so fast. Morality is much more complicated than that.
What we end up with in society is a pseudo-philosophy of supreme morality that everyone believes they possess. The danger of this is magnified when people of power use this to leverage ideology and their agendas.
Consider the recent healthcare bill that the Republicans shoved through the House of Representatives. I’m almost certain the brilliant minds that put it together have no grasp on how insurance works. You want young, healthy people in the same pool as older and sicker people. They offset one another. There you go; that’s how insurance works. But the current bill isolates older citizens, and people with pre-existing conditions into high-risk pools, in which they will have to pay up to five times the normal rate for insurance.
The list of pre-existing conditions reads longer than a CVS receipt, and includes people that have been the victim of sexual assault or domestic violence, people with depression, and those with addiction (What happened to the appointed drug Czar Chris Christie, who promotes compassion and understanding of addiction? Only after the insurance company gets their kickback; that’s New Jersey politics at work).
When asked about the pre-existing conditions, Alabama Senator Mo Brooks said about high risk pools, “That helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy. And right now, those are the people — who’ve done things the right way — that are seeing their costs skyrocketing.” This could be interpreted as a stupid, off the cuff sound bite, or could be a comment meant to rally support from those who want to feel like they’ve “done things the right way.”
The left is in no way immune to this philosophical moralizing either. On campuses around the country free speech is suppressed from those on the top floors of ivy towers, restricting students from hearing speeches that could be “offensive or harmful.” Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos were both canceled at UC Berkeley in the past year, and speakers are canceled in universities from coast to coast every month for beliefs that fit some arbitrary, ambiguous, and inaccurate category of perceived racism, sexism, or any other –ism’s.
The parasite of political correctness that now controls its host, the left, is a moral argument by those who seem to have no concept of the dangers of restricting the first amendment. In their naiveté, and on their high horse, they ignorantly and arrogantly trample free speech in the name of tolerance and equality – concepts they understand little of, and do even less to achieve.
As everyone screams about his or her moral superiority, what gets drowned out is actual human decency. We begin to see those who have different beliefs than us as less than human. They become the enemy. The trenches of division are dug a little deeper, while those with dubious ambitions for power become stronger.
There are general principles, or morality we can all agree on. Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, progressive or conservative, Yankees fan or Red Sox fan; Love, generosity, and goodwill towards other people are examples and a good place to start. These concepts matter. Everything else is secondary.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
“Love, generosity, and goodwill towards other people are examples and a good place to start. These concepts matter. Everything else is secondary.”
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That’s the ticket, right there. Whether you’re on the left, or on the right – if you don’t get that, you really need to sit down, and shut up, until you do.
Why? Because right now, you’re part of the problem rather than part of the solution. You’re not being a good man, a good woman, or a good whatever you define yourself as.