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ON BEING MORAL

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Personal Gain

Being Fair

Misleading Factors

Anger

Admitting Error
Admitting You are Wrong
People do not like to be wrong. Actually, they don't mind being wrong if they don't know they are wrong. What they do not like is having to face the fact that they were wrong. In other words, they do not like to admit that they were wrong. So the problem, simply put is this. If you have strayed from the moral right, you are wrong. You will not like admitting you are wrong. That makes it more difficult to move to the good side of the moral line.

Timing

How much people dislike admitting they are wrong depends on how much they committed themselves to their position. The more people who know what you did or said, the more you will dislike being wrong. The more time you have spent on a project, the more you will dislike admitting that the project is a failure (or wrong to begin with). If you are fighting with someone you do not like, you will hate admitting that you are wrong (and the other person is right, or the other person wins that skirmish). So, the first advice for staying in the moral right is to try to be moral all of the time. You want to make this effort before you are committed to your position, when it is easy to be moral. The second piece of advice is, when you realize you are wrong, admit it, quickly and clearly. It will only get harder if you delay. Of course, this means trying to recognize when you are wrong.

Recognition

Suppose you did something that was morally wrong. Suppose also that if you thought about it long enough, and openly enough, you would realize that you were wrong. When you start to have this thought, even unconsciously -- when you start to go in the direction of having this thought consciously -- you will begin to feel anxious and guilty. You will not like feeling anxious or guilty. So you will defend yourself against the thought. You will distract yourself. Or you will think the opposite of the thought, so that you cannot produce the thought. If a supporting thought makes the bad thought go away, you will focus on the supporting thought. It will make you feel good. Feeling good is normally a sign that you have found the truth, but not in this circumstances. This is normal -- people manipulate their thoughts so that they do not have to believe things they do not want to believe.

Problems with not Admitting that You were Wrong

There are several problems with doing this. One is that it doesn't work perfectly -- you will feel a little anxious and bad as you do it. This is especially unfortunate for those unwanted beliefs that, if you had faced them, you would have discovered is not true. And, most obviously, this is not a good way of knowing the truth. Now, the problem is this. Suppose you are trying to do a satyagraha, and you do something wrong. Maybe it is very immoral; maybe it is a little immoral. Now your opponent is confronting you with this. If you deny it to yourself, because you do not want to believe it, you will think you are still fighting for the truth, but you are not. You will be fighting with the lies you made up to support your desired beliefs and get rid of your unwanted beliefs. Your satyagraha will not work.

Solution

The solution is somewhat simple; it just takes a lot of maturity and willpower. You can feel the unwanted thought coming, because you will feel bad, or anxious, or both. You simply do not fight the thought. Even though it hurts, you accept the thought. It might not be true, so you don't automatically accept, but you do not automatically start denying the thought.

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