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ON BEING MORAL
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Personal Gain
Being Fair
Misleading Factors
Anger
Admitting Error
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Trying to be Morally Right ReminderWhen you are fighting with morals, trying to win hearts, it helps tremendously if you are being more moral than the other person. If you are being less moral, then you will lose. (If you both were being moral and fighting with satyagraha, then it is a search for truth, not a fight.)So it helps if you are beyond reproach morally. Perfection is difficult, but the closer you can come, the better off you are. If you try to fight morally, and if there is something un-right about what you are doing, it will probably be thrown against you. In a way that is good -- your opponent is moving to a moral level, which is what you want, and your opponent is acknowledging the validity of moral judgments, which is what you want. On the negative side, you will be losing that skirmish. You will have to admit your error, which is not pleasant. The Problem of Being MoralHowever, just because you want to be moral, just because you are a moral person, that doesn't mean that you will end up on the right side of the moral line -- being morally right apparently can be very difficult, for many different reasons.So, this section of this web site is about the skill of being morally right. Your feelings, and your desire to be a good person, are one moral compass. A compass is not enough -- there are many different magnetic currents that can lead your feelings astray. PreludeI was starting a fight against the leaders of an organization. I did not want them to lose heart an quit the organization -- I liked them and the organization. So I offered to reveal how they should defend against my way of fighting. They did not accept my offer, but if they had, what would I have told them?The defense against satyagraha is satyagraha. But they were already being polite and considerate. They did not have to pretend to like me, because they actually did like me. The only thing they were doing wrong was that they were not being moral. But they thought they were doing the right thing. They had taken a wrong position. To be morally correct, they would have had to admit they were wrong. It is never easy to admit that you are wrong. But the start of the fight is the easiest time to admit that. Once the fight starts, it becomes very difficult to admit you are wrong. So, how is it that good, kind, moral people could think they are doing the right thing yet actually be doing the wrong thing, even before any real fighting? MenuThe Menu on your left has the essays concerned with this problem of being moral. |