A Question of Morality

Whether we are consciously considering morality or not, it is ever present.  It raises it’s head in many different spheres of life and at a variety of levels.  Everyone has their own take on what is moral, sometimes from what they have been taught but not thought about, sometimes as the result of deep and careful pondering. Most of us have a sense of what is right and honest and what is not. Watching children being ‘fair’ is enlightening.

The film, ‘Catch me if you can’ was an interesting one based on a true story.  A boy of sixteen passed himself off as an airline pilot and a medic but his real strength was forgery.  He managed to defraud companies and banks of millions of dollars.  He was caught and punished but then had an extraordinary career as an adviser to firms who did not want to be cheated out of ‘their’ money which netted him a far greater income.

The question arises, why don’t we all try something similar? What stops us from doing what we want rather than what society tells us we should do?  As long as we have to base our commercial world on money, and what else is so useful a tool for exchange of services and goods, we are open to fraud.  The fact that so few people try to cheat suggests that at heart most of us have an understanding of the need for trust, and to trust, a system we all – to some extent – understand.  Perhaps the routine of an orderly life is what appeals to most of us even when we are struggling to find money to pay bills and stay solvent.  It’s an interesting conundrum.

How much are we afraid to cheat because of the threats of sanctions against us; how much do we keep to accepted codes of behavior because we believe they are necessary and how much does it just not occur to us to take what we want regardless of the consequences to ourselves or others? Those who rob you don’t care about the effect on you. How are they different?

Perhaps our outrage when we are robbed in the street or our homes are burgled is partly to do with the unfairness of someone breaking the rules added to the sense of violation we experience as a result.  We want our person and our property to be respected, so we treat others as we expect to be treated. 

Is morality about respect?  Is it about kindness and good manners?  Or does it stem from something much deeper? Philosophers will have many ideas about morality but how do those thoughts impinge on how the majority of us behave? What keeps us being moral is interesting.