I’m a Moral Relativist. Are You?
Moral relativism is what our religious, societal, and political systems are deathly afraid of. They tell us that unless we obey the rules, the laws, and the credos of our society, society will fall into chaos.
Moral relativism is fed by the erroneous beliefs that human beings are alone (that is, non-interrelated to other beings) and essentially morally corrupted. So, if I do what is good for me and you do what is good for you then, boom! chaos erupts.
If you turn on the television, read the paper, or if you’ve lost your home recently, then there is plenty of evidence to substantiate this belief.
We are driven by fear, and the evidence of our fears.
We are taught that we can not trust ourselves or our neighbors to do the right thing. We are taught that people have to be told or coherced into doing what’s good or what’s right. Then we are taught to ignore the deep sense of resentment or longing that arises for listening to the myriad voices that always seem to know better than we do.
I find it interesting though that most people intuitively know the good when they see it and they know what’s right for them when they feel it. I also find it interesting that on the occasion when we follow our intuitive feelings, it turns out to be the right thing. Could it be that we are hardwired to know the good, rather than hardwired to be selfish?
There was a time in our recent history where inter-racial marriage was illegal and considered immoral, the way same sex marriage is today. But there were many individuals, my parents for example, who had the courage to move beyond this fearful conditioned belief. Today we see them as pioneers, but back then they would have been at the apex of the axis of evil, or gasp! perverts.
Was is it inside of us that recognizes error as error and truth as truth? Is it our conscience, our Source, our Soul, our Self? And why aren’t we given the tools to explore the nature of ourselves beyond what we’ve been told? Because then the world would change. The current power structures couldn’t survive as they are if the majority of people were Authentically Empowered (thanks Gary Zukav). If we were told that we were born into love rather than sin, if we were taught to trust and then develop our innate goodness and our intuition, then we wouldn’t need to be told what to believe, how to behave, and how to feel; rather we would know and we would act according to that knowing.
True, for some, its a long way from where they are now to being authentically empowered, but it isn’t that far for you, if you’re here, reading this entry.
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