BEING MORAL, PART I. . .

Be wise as serpents…-Jesus

Good morning Gentle Reader.  Consider these words, ‘be wise as serpents,’ to frame the sole precept that is followed by and demanded of a politics focused on obtaining results.  Sadly, too often – rarely actually – is it followed by the prerequisite of being ‘guileless as doves.’  The supplement that morality calls us to add.

Hannah Arendt in her book, Responsibility and Judgment, reminds us that: ‘No one had to be a convinced Nazi to conform, and to forget overnight, as it were, not his social status but the moral convictions which once went with it.’

Consider that what is happening – in clear opposition to the ever expanding reality of human interdependence – is the closing off of that realm of moral obligations that we are ready to admit, take responsibility for, and accept as a charge that requires our daily attention and calls us to engage in remedial moral action.

What keeps us from being morally and unconditionally response-able?  We are nurturing a world, not of interdependence but of separation.  We are creating and living in a world sharply divided into ‘us’ versus ‘them.’

Ironically, this growing chasm does not require a ‘negation of morality as such.’  On the contrary, this growing chasm births frantic efforts to draft moral impulses into the service of the serpent via serving social and political division and antagonism (think: fear, suspicion, demonization and hate of ‘them’).

‘Morality’ is far from becoming a negative attribute.  ‘Morality’ continues to be a name for a property that is widely coveted.  People of all types wish to appropriate, possess and protect this property for themselves.  People covet this property because they believe it will bestow on the owners of the property the mechanism it provides in order to recruit more followers (think: converts) and of the moral advantages it provides ‘us’ over ‘them.’  Those who hold this property can – and do – claim moral superiority over ‘them.’

Now, this gets messy.  The right to the label ‘moral’ is contested by all who claim a right to own this property.  Each party that claims the right to this property hotly denies any suspicion of moral indifference on their part.  They deny any moral blindness.  They deny holding an immoral stance.  AND (remember, Gentle Reader, there is always an ‘AND’), each charges the ‘other’ (think: ‘them’) with the moral perversions running amok among us.

Simply stated: Being ‘Moral’ means knowing the difference between good and evil and where to draw the line between them.  It also means recognizing one’s own unconditional response-ability and responsibility for promoting good and resisting evil.  It also means recognizing and accepting both the good and evil that resides within one’s self (remember, at our healthiest each of us is a living paradox).