5. Warped Morality
Why is the current administration trashing truthfulness daily, and acting so cruelly? It’s because they are Dominators, and that is what they do. They want to exert unchecked power over others to accomplish their goals. But what goal are they seeking to accomplish? Are they doing this simply for wealth and power? Probably they are. That is the obvious goal. Alternatively, I can imagine a situation in which someone would allow themselves to do almost anything to bring about something they see as a public good. They might imagine a shift that would make the world better in their eyes and so they do anything to bring this about. For them, the goal is their moral purpose. This thinking is warped, but it may explain what is happening. Maybe some of these leaders have a warped and twisted ideal of morality. I am probably being too kind, and it is simply wealth and power lust for them, but the alternative is possible.
In the alternative case of benevolent goals, here is how the warping plays out. Say you are a person with strong opinions about what is right and wrong and how people should live. In your mind, you have a clear sense of what people should and shouldn’t do, how the world should be. Maybe your opinions are based on scripture or content you picked up online. Who knows? Either way, you feel virtuous in your moral outlook. The human failings you perceive in others bother you. What do you do with that?
We are action-oriented attainers by nature who want to build and fix things, do things to make our neighborhoods and communities better. We can envision admirable outcomes, and we try to bring them about. Dominators are driven and results-oriented. From this perceived moral high ground position, armed with the Dominator’s outlook, they act with force. But something important twists. The trait of self-control, individual restraint, fails. They skip the key part about considering the moral elements of their own actions in service of the goal. They neglect the “how” of achieving the goal. As they pursue their goals, the quality of personal conscience that governs behavior shuts down. The urgency to bring about change consumes them. They overlook the moral aspects of their own actions. Power, moral righteousness, and opportunity merge. Soon it seems OK to take any action, even duplicitous, cruel, destructive ones, to advance their vision of a better world. This warped morality echoes the prohibition I learned as a child, that two wrongs don’t make a right.
The warped morality view says immoral actions are justified by what they achieve. Maybe the team in power now thinks like this. It is dirty work, but it needs to be done to make the world a better place. This warped view of morality scares me, but it may be the essence of what is happening now. Maybe we see not a lack of morality, but a warped sense of morality. Anything goes if it achieves a “good” outcome.
People can find fault with just about any behavior out there. The trouble happens when a personal sense of right and wrong compels them to act in despicable ways to force others to change. They disrespect the essential humanity of others, inflicting pain to make the world conform to their vision. Their passion for the outcome that they desired bent their moral lens. A warped sense of moral righteousness may cause a host of regrettable actions. These people have lost sight of the importance of the “how” in attempting to bring about the change they seek.
Warped morality uses the luster of the stated end benefit as a justification to make atrocious behavior seem acceptable. Goal-oriented, outcome-oriented ethics like this are just not a healthy way for humanity to be. Think about what would happen if anyone with a supposed moral goal used that to act in any way they pleased to bring about that goal. Abuse would be rampant. I hope we realize that this warped morality is flawed, as the danger of this is immense.
Ideally, differences of opinion would lead to conversations and increased understanding, not hate and harm. It is incumbent on anyone who feels moral outrage at the behaviors of another to pause and gently start a conversation, listen, try to understand, and if then you want to persuade, go for it, but recognize the basic humanity of the other person first.
An important part of the Life Ethic is the phrase “if everyone acted that way.” It would be wise for the person who cruelly pushes their views to imagine how this would be if everyone acted that way. Suppose they were subjected to the warped morality of those who opposed their lifestyle.
What matters is what we do, period. How we live our day-to-day lives is the key. Our daily acts of kindness, compassion, and truthfulness matter. It is the essential thing. Morality is about how we act, not about a desired state we are trying to bring about. I made up a clunky but effective word for this, “howality.” This is our self-restraint mechanism or conscience that checks our own behavior. As my grade school teachers admonished, the end doesn’t justify the means. I think they nailed it.
