I am so sick it is unbelievable, I can barely put one foot in front of the other. Sweats and just trying to stay awake.
But one of the things I wanted to comment on so I do not lose the train of thought that is coming from some of the comments are:
not all laws are just,
not all laws are made for the good of the community
and morality and ethics (I’ll delve into the definition of those that I use since there is an absolute spectrum of definition for their terms) do not exist as single sets of rules or ideas, but like reality – there are three or four of them that build upon each other.
But the morality we choose to govern our personal life with effects the ethical actions and decisions we perform in regards to our own lives. This then must be adjust as we increase the circle of lives in which we are interacting.
A community’s morals and the basis for their ethical laws are merely a broad whitewash treatment of the very specific and specialized morals and ethics of the individual.
However…given that few laws are ethical and just (and most are reactionary and politically formed) where does the requirement come into play that one must weigh ones morals and ethics before breaking (or enforcing a law)?
Because a law…no matter how injust or inappropriate is most often an attempt at serving the survival of the community. One must weigh if one’s minority individualism, in that moment, is worth more than ones relationship to the common. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. One must also weigh the implications of individual action against a combined effort.
Laws can be very distracting.
Laws are a means to provide morality and ethics through negative modeling and that, is rarely successful. The more you strive to be law abiding the more you model your life through what it is not and the further you get from living a life that is generated from a desire to follow a moral and ethical code. The reward of a moral and ethical life is always the assurance that one is “good” (and take that as you may). One chooses morals and ethics because one has become able to make a judgment that divides the world (on at least some levels) into the concepts of good and bad.
I think the example given was “to steal a car because you want it is wrong but to take it inorder to drive to a hospital to save a life makes it right” misses the fundamental flaw in that sequence.
It assumes a kind of solitary presence in the world in which the life and choices of the individual is the be all and end all in making decisions.
If I steal food because I am hungry, I am right in having fed myself or am I wrong in that I have taken food from someone else that is now going hungry?
The issue, for me, is not so much the right or wrong of these choices but the lack of awareness of the interconnectedness of our lives. Why am I hungry if my neighbor knows I am hungry and has food they can share? Why am I having to steal a car and drive myself to a hospital and not considering asking a neighbor for help?
oh my god…I am just a pool of sweat..its like torture…here it is so cool and rainy at last and I am just…melting in a fever
what is that little flower?
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