How serious do you take morals?

[bighead384]

"Don’t be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so" - Henry David Thoreau

Hope I'm not somehow misunderstanding this quote or it's context somehow, but I stumbled across this and it got me thinking about myself, and also about other people. I've always felt that a lot/most people don't really give a fuck and will do whatever they can get away with, with few limits. Do people justify their immorality with an extreme version of the sentiment expressed here? Then again, sometimes I just have moments where I say "Fuck it" and take the easier way out. Not so often that I'm ashamed of it or anything though.

I guess overall what I'm wondering is: what do you think of the mentality expressed in this quote?

I think it should say "seriously" in the thread title. Oh well.

[bighead384]

I'm disappointed in the lack of replies because I'm kind of curious about this. I'm not necessarily looking for some deep philosophical shit here. Just personal accounts of the extent/limits of your moral conviction would interest me.

[Offspring-Junkie]

I take morals very seriously. I know that most don't.

[WebDudette]

You know that most don't? Is it possible that they just have different morals than you do?

[yarock]

Who was that Huxtable fella?

[bighead384]

You know that most don't? Is it possible that they just have different morals than you do?

Maybe my personal experience gives me the pessimistic view I have. I've had 4 friends steal from me, one of which is also a confessed molester (and that's just the most serious things I can think of). My observations on the immorality of other people seem to be based around universal moral truisms, like not lying, cheating or stealing. On a larger scale, there is a lot of corruption within institutions, so much so that it seems to be the norm. I guess this is a pretty complex issue, but I have become very sure about my views of the morality of people based on my personal experience.

I find this to be relevant lol...
When the truth walks away
everybody stays
'cause the truth about the world
is that crime does pay

[Llamas]

I think there are three reasons to follow morals:

1) law/don't want to go to jail.
2) religion.
3) genuine will to not hurt others and just to be a good person.

I honestly do think most people fit into the first two groups... but I know that the third group exists as well because most (not all...) of my friends and I are generally part of it. I've had many foolproof opportunities to steal, I've thought about doing it, but I've just never been able to feel okay with it. Example: I was at a friend's party, there were like 15 people there... my friend got really drunk and let us in her room. She was a waitress and had a huuuuuuuge stack of cash (I'm talking 10s and 20s) on her dresser. She drunkenly picked it up and threw it all around the room. It was easily a few hundred... and then she passed out in her bed. Some of us started picking it all up for her, and I saw a few people pocket some of it... but I couldn't do it. I didn't take a single dollar.

The ghetto grocery store by my place is run by lazy fucks who don't want to do any work. When you load up your cart with beers or bread rolls, they simply ask you how many you have and ring up whatever number you say. I've seen numerous people with like 23 beers in their cart tell the cashier they have 15. She believes them (well, she's too lazy to count them herself) and rings up 15. Never been able to do it myself. I know I'd get away with it as I see it happen every day... but I can't do it.

I'm not saying I'm some great, moral person... stealing a few beers from the store doesn't make someone a terrible person in my opinion (though stealing cash from a friend is a bit more on the nasty side of things), but I just can't bring myself to do things like that. My friends are sometimes even more extremely moral than I am - sometimes in ways that I'd say their honesty occasionally even hurts them.

I guess my point is that I do believe in true morality. I believe there are people whose morals really can't be corrupted or destroyed. But I do think those people are pretty scarce.

And Pilz makes a great point. Morals are defined by a person. There's no such thing as a global moral or anything. The point is only whether or not you follow the morals, whatever they may be, only so long as you don't think you'll get in trouble... or if you do it honestly.

[WebDudette]

I was talking to Offspring_Junkie, but I suppose it applies to you too.

I have a fairly strong moral code of my own, but there are people who could find what I do to be immoral and wrong.

Morals are subjective, what's important to you isn't important to the next person. For example, part of my moral code is to disassociate myself with known molesters. I've been faced with that situation and I've removed them from my life. I find it to be one of the most disgusting and repulsive things someone can do. In that same vein, I'd go as far as to say that I find anyone who continues a relationship with a known molester deplorable, and I would disassociate myself from them as well.

Most people have some kind of moral code, some are more loose than others, some are contradictory and make no sense, and some people just don't even realize what they are doing. That said, some people truly have no set of standards or morals, but I don't think that is 'most' people, in fact I think it's a rather small minority.

When you're talking about corruption in institutions, that's also a very small percentage. I mean, I loathe the Catholic Church, but there are over a billion people involved and maybe a couple thousand are actively corrupt.

I just want to clarify, I agree that in general, people kind of suck. But that doesn't mean that they are compromising their morals every time they do something you don't like.

[bighead384]

Here's what I'm thinking: The ultimate goal in life is to be happy. Morals are related to collective self-interest, which in turn is directly related to happiness. But people put personal satisfaction before collective self-interest a lot of the time and especially if they can do so without negative consequences.

So I think that's why people give into smaller temptations sometimes. For example, when you steal beers from a store, it's kind of not that big of a deal, because the conditions under which certain people profit off the sale of that beer aren't completely fair. Not that its "right", but there seems to be a common idea in morality of things that are "immoral" but "aren't that big of a deal" (For example, Llamas, you say that stealing those beers doesn't make you "a terrible person").But that line of thinking is a slippery slope, and I think that's a big problem.

Hope that makes sense, morality is fucking complicated.

[Omni]

I was talking to Offspring_Junkie, but I suppose it applies to you too.

I have a fairly strong moral code of my own, but there are people who could find what I do to be immoral and wrong.

Morals are subjective, what's important to you isn't important to the next person. For example, part of my moral code is to disassociate myself with known molesters. I've been faced with that situation and I've removed them from my life. I find it to be one of the most disgusting and repulsive things someone can do. In that same vein, I'd go as far as to say that I find anyone who continues a relationship with a known molester deplorable, and I would disassociate myself from them as well.

Most people have some kind of moral code, some are more loose than others, some are contradictory and make no sense, and some people just don't even realize what they are doing. That said, some people truly have no set of standards or morals, but I don't think that is 'most' people, in fact I think it's a rather small minority.

When you're talking about corruption in institutions, that's also a very small percentage. I mean, I loathe the Catholic Church, but there are over a billion people involved and maybe a couple thousand are actively corrupt.

I just want to clarify, I agree that in general, people kind of suck. But that doesn't mean that they are compromising their morals every time they do something you don't like.

Do you believe all convicted sex offenders are molesters/rapists, or do you find out details before cutting ties with the people in question?