The Measure of Morality

I was talking with my best friend tonight about 1972 Olympics and how I found the terrorist attack that happened to be one of the most reprehensible things imaginable. I commented that I don't consider myself a deeply moral person, but for someone to attack something like the Olympics to be deeply base and horrible.

I guess in my own way, I am a moral person. I base my morality off of the idea that my actions and decisions shouldn't purposefully destroy the well being of others. Now, I'm not saying to be a doormat who just goes out of her way to please everyone all the time. Sometimes people can be way too demanding and sometimes you just run out of spoons.

Actually, I'm not talking about actions you would personally take to please others in any case. I'm speaking more of the instances where we could take actions that we know would cause the destruction of other people's happiness. The Munich terrorist attack is a good example of this. People went to that Olympics with hope and excitement and a want to compete and have fun. The terrorists did not have to make any effort at all to ensure this happened, all they had to do was NOT choose to be terrorists. They could have just stayed at home and grumbled in private. Instead, they actively chose to destroy other people's hope and happiness. To me, this is immoral.

There has been so much discussion about gay marriage. People debating it. People screaming about it. People eating chicken in protest of it. Sometimes I get so angry about the issue that I could just pull out my hair, especially when those who oppose gay marriage claim to be so moral.

The thing is, they are only moral by their standards. To my mind, what they are doing is imposing their ideas about life on other people and forcing everyone to conform to their values. By doing this, they are making many, many people unhappy. They want people who have found love and comfort to have to never celebrate that in the most basic and obvious way two people can do so.

In other words, people who oppose gay marriage actually oppose everyone being happy. They believe happiness is something that should be reserved for only those like them. They go beyond just believing this and try to legislate it. They actively try to make other people never be happy. As far as I am concerned, that is completely immoral.

So in your day to day life, maybe this is something you can think about. As I said, I don't think it's as important that you go out of your way to make other people happy as it is to make sure you're not going out of your way to make people UNhappy.  If you can keep quiet and hurt no one or say something and cause someone pain, just don't speak. If you can sit in your chair and hurt no one or stand up and cause someone pain, just keep sitting. Sometimes, inaction is the most moral thing you can do.