The Ultimate Goal of Bein' Moral

Yesterday, I read about this kid on a bus that saved twenty-two lives. He was ridin' at the back of the bus to school and fell asleep onlt to get woken up by his lil sisters sayin there's a fourteen-year-old girl wavin' a gun everywhere. He gets up, thinks fast, and let's the kids out the of the emergency exit. He gets the girl's attention and makes sure the barrel of the gun is pointed at him. The girl is neverous and distracted, she looks out the window, and the guy tackles her to take her gun away. He has the gun, unloads it, and saves the day.







(Cue the applause boys and girls, the young football star is clearly a hero.)







A few years back my brother and I were on our way to fix a water leak. We weren't too familiar with the neighborhood so we stop and check our key map. While we're doin' that two women pull up near us and start shoutin' "Help us! Help us! There's somebody breakin' in our house!" So we follow them and pull up to their driveway.





One of the women gets out of the truck and says "They're in the back!", so I charge in (stupidly, 'cause I'm unarmed). My brother grabs the biggest pipe wrench he can find an comes in behind me. We spot two teenage boys halfway in the house and call the cops. It only takes em about forty-five minutes to get there. We were late to our waterleak and that lady yelled at us. She called the office and talked to our boss/dad. When we got back to the office he yelled at us. We explained why we were late and he yelled at us some more. He thought we were foolish for gettin involved, those people could've been armed or they might try messin' with the company now, etc. Lame.





(Cue the laughter 'cause I don't get how we messed that up really. I thought we did what we had to do and I'd do it again.)





Why should a person be moral? Why should we try and help others? What good could come of it? These stories show different examples of what could happen if you try helpin' others. You could be praised for bein a hero or you could wind up gettin fussed at for the whole thing. But like I said, I'd do it again. But why?





My girlfriend wrote a paper on why people should be moral and here's what that said:

A Not so Modest Proposal

Why be moral? Simply put, to get ahead. The point of being moral isn’t necessarily to live morally, but to lead others into thinking that a particular person is living morally, while he is still getting ahead of the nice guy. Life is a race people want to win, and the quickest way to achieve that is by mastering the art of pretending to be moral. It’s been said that evil has many faces. Anyone can have many faces and learn to only show the face that lives morally, at least, what others perceive as moral.

Pretending to be moral can be a major health advantage. Putting in too much hard work for too long is extremely taxing. It causes unnecessary stress which, if ignored for an extended amount of time, can lead to medical problems such as depression, fatigue, apathy, and a number of heart problems. This happens when trying to live morally; living by the rules and restrictions that others try to suppress individuals with. On the other hand, if someone is only pretending to be moral, he will have the satisfaction of knowing that he’s living by his own rules. A man can be free! A person could work as much or as little as he wants and still be happy knowing that he’s making as much money as the guys working twice as hard as him. This cutback on stress is a sure way to lead a healthy and happy life.

Why should people not cut corners? Everyone else is looking out for themselves. Why follow rules that others will break to get ahead of everyone else in the race? Friedrich Nietzsche said in The Antichrist that “Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose.” Morality limits what options people have by eliminating several that would make their successes easier to obtain. It is better for a person to get what they want and how they want it. The opportunity to succeed may never present itself to some in a “moral” way. The point of being moral is to be successful at one’s endeavors while being an example of a model citizen to society. It’s not so different to merely appear to be moral in public. It’s a shame when people assume that everyone is living by the same moral code as them.

People live morally to ensure their justice if one should ever bring harm unto them. If a man is robbed, morals are what lead a jury to charge the offender as guilty and give him a sentence seen fit to compensate for the victim. To avoid being a victim, one should simply get ahead by robbing them first. Pretending to be moral has an equally effective way of protecting people against victimization; a preemptive strike against those who would do others harm. In the end, Life’s a race people die trying to win. Everyone will always chase the dream of being the happiest whether they do it morally, or pretend to. People should be able to reach their happiness however they can, just don’t get caught.

I have to disagree with that.

Undoubtedly, it is what a lot of people do. People tell you one thing and do another. I believe the reason any moral rules are broken by a person supporting these rules is through a flaw in this person. Some have issues going back to their childhood, some have imbalances in their brain chemistry, others have been led to believe that actin' immorrally is acceptable. No one is perfect and you can't expect people to be perfect. Even a person who does his best to be moral is going to have his faults. I am obviously not perfect. My girlfriend is not perfect. Still this addresses more why people are not always moral. If people can not be moral all the time and are going to make mistakes why should anyone try to be moral ever?

I believe that by tryin' to be a better person you can become a better person. You try and you try to do things in a way that shows love, respect, and compassion for you fellow man and eventually it becomes habit. You won't even have to think about what's right in certain situations. It'll become second nature to you.

By having this behavior become a part of you, you will be able to pass it on to your friends and family through your example. It doesn't work immediately or in all cases. You can't force it on to people. It's somethin' that oughtta be soaked in over time. It can take years even generations but I believe that the end result is that when the morality finally soaks into your children, your friends' children and so on the world will have become a slightly better place where there is more love, respect and compassion. There would be less lyin', less back stabbin', less senseless violence.

That is the ultimate goal of bein' moral.

That's all anybody really wants.