Morality

THE NEW MORALITY


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Hello Kate

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These days it's OK to lie, cheat, steal, bully kids, shoot people who get in your way, be cruel to animals, get drunk, take drugs, be unfaithful to your spouse, molest children and brag about all of the above. Other people do those things, don't they? I heard an interview with a sociologist who claimed that in today's freer more libertine society things which would have been considered reprehensible 100 years ago are more acceptable. So what happened to the moral high ground some hypocrites are fond of talking about?



The sad fact is that one has to be as compassionate with the perpetrators as much as with the victims. Those thoughts and urges that reside in our minds and emotions are only potent when they are believed. I don't have enough money so I have to steal. I will play my music as loud as I need to and to hell with the neighbors. Seeing pain and suffering is a catharsis that cleans out my system. I have strong sexual desires and need to find outlets for them. I will trash the son of a bitch next time I see him.



Those thughts are from the proverbial biblical serpent: snake talk. It worms its way into our thinking, moves in and takes residence. It finds the vulnerable places in our inefficient understanding of ourselves and starts talking. It creates lies. It convinces us of needs and how to supply them. It convinces us of lack, loss, lust, addiction, injustice and superiority over other people. And it convinces us that all those thoughts are our own thoughts.



If we try to pull ourselves together morally we begin by struggling against the results of the snake talk. That takes will power, something the snake talker says we don't have enough of. So then we start struggling against the false talk itself which we are convinced is our own thinking.. But ultimately the only way to gain the moral ground is to rid our minds of the snake talker itself. That takes courage and alertness.



A wise person once said "Think before you think." The thoughts, urges, impressions, plans, intensions, intuitions and needs should be examined to determine if they come from our own true hearts or from some reptilian influence. It isn't easy, but it is essential.



I am enough of an idealist to believe in the natural nobility of the human being. I want to know less from the immoralists and more from the noble.

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Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

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