What does moral mean as a word or an idea? In every society and community, there is a set of principles and behaviors taught from generation to generation about what is considered right and wrong behavior.
This practice is present in every community, from organized first-world societies to primitive nomadic tribes. The exact details can vary dramatically, but the method of teaching a set of morals is practically inherent in any organized community that follows the rules to keep itself functioning and protected.
Morality Defined and Learned
The definitions of right and wrong are significantly diverse, but in all cases, children learn these principles through instruction and trial and error experimentation. The education comes in communication from someone older who spells out what is good behavior and acceptable versus what is bad and not acceptable. However, there are always children who learn what occurs when one acts bad because of lack of context or plain rambunctiousness.
This practice of either getting hurt or punished reinforces not just avoidance of the bad behavior but why it should be avoided, which can be a much stronger lesson than any abstract instruction.
Morality is also a far more abstract concept covering more behavior than in a tribal setting in today’s society. For example, morality is centred around survival in most basic nomadic communities. Doing bad things can get a person seriously or killed very quickly. So morality, as defined by a tribe, is often a matter of life and death. In modern society, morality is far more ambiguous.
People can do many things that are frowned upon by their communities, but it doesn’t mean they will suddenly be killed or maimed upon action. Instead, they may very well go about their business day to day, known for being immoral and able to function and survive. On the other hand, bad morals that result in outright violations a community has defined as a crime can quickly get a person punished or incarcerated for more extended periods, losing their freedom.
How We Apply Morality
Interestingly, most people learn basic morals at a very young age because they need to function and benefit from being in a given community. Without cooperation, people quickly find themselves on the outs and lose the benefit of the more significant group. If they are not strong enough or independent enough to survive on their own, the need for the group forces conforming behavior soon enough.
This is often seen in how children develop in school, learning very quickly to adjust to group thinking to function and benefit from the main group of the class.
The classic test for classrooms has usually been, what would a person do if they found a bag full of money on a bench or sidewalk while walking by? The money is there. The owner is nowhere to be found. And no one else is present to see what occurs. Sounds too good to be true, right? However, many people would take the money, no questions asked, and walk off.
A minority would look around for the owner, and a smaller group would turn the money into the local police department for recovery. Who is right? Who is moral?
Most would say that a moral person turns money into our modern community. If no one claims it, then it there’s to receive and keep. However, many would also be satisfied with a bona fide effort to find the owner before walking off and pocketing the cash.
A good majority would say that the person who takes the money quietly is immoral behavior. However, some would point out that doing so is not illegal because Who found the money without an owner present or visible.
So it’s the finder’s property at that point. As a result, it would probably fair to say that many folks believe good morals involve doing the right thing, even at the expense of one’s opportunity or benefit, as in the case of returning the bag of money to the police if no owner is found.
What Happens When Things Go, Gray,
Yet morals and morality are more than just doing the good thing. They are abstract rules we follow to define what it means to be a good person or a good human being in our lives, community, and environment. Things around us may change, grow, age and be replaced. Yet our understanding of what is right and wrong doesn’t change when it comes to some core principles.
Everyone agrees that killing is bad, even when done for defence. Others agree that stealing is anti-social and should be prevented or stopped when it occurs; otherwise, no one would respect anyone else’s property and belongings. And the list continues with several practices that generally reflect behaviors to avoid.
Where morality goes into a gray area is what we call victimless actions or no-harm behaviors. The intention is usually for self-gratification or pleasure, and there is no harm to anyone else committing these behaviors. Yet our morals, depending on our culture and background, would say that some behaviors are still wrong.
Overeating is gluttonous and wrong because it wastes food and is unhealthy for the body. Wanton relationships are not a good idea because they demote the idea of marriage and create health risks for the participant. Eating or drinking substances that cause disorientation or hallucination are bad because they create addictive behavior, loss of control, and loss of inhibitions, which can get a person in bad situations.
These are generally not activities that automatically create a problem for others, but they are still considered morally bad because they bring down the person’s character in relation to the rest of the community.
In self-reflection, we end up finding that being moral is in practice far more often about maintaining a balance in life and moderation and respecting one’s community they are part of. The idea is painted as doing good, helping others, sacrificing, and being charitable and law-abiding. Yet, fundamentally, being moral in a positive manner is about regularly being proactively beneficial to one’s community.
Teaching Takes Practice
Teaching kids to be moral with all the above complexities often goes in a roller-coaster fashion. When they are young, good and bad seem to be clearly defined. Unfortunately, when they hit their teen years, the ambiguity of more challenging morals tends to be something that has to be learned through trial and error.
Then, in full adulthood, most children find their place and generally follow acceptable community morals because they want to benefit from community opportunities. So, in short, we learn to commit to a social contract. We agree to behave properly with each other to enjoy the benefits of protection, safety, resource access, and improvement of our individual lives. This respect is very similar to primitive tribal morals in that we learn to survive and live versus make mistakes and fall.
There is no perfect morality behavior. We all have our flaws that come out from time to time. Being moral then comes back to balance, where we strive to control our weaknesses and keep them in check. Then we can think about higher issues such as cooperation, creativity, and collective production.
Our morality defines us and our roles in our community. And it promotes our lives or holds us back, depending on which way we swing in balancing our wants with our disciplines. So to define moral or being moral, it’s often necessary to first understand what right and wrong are where we live and share with others. When we understand what makes us tick towards more than just living alone, the rest begins to fall in place.
