Moral vs Practical

 

Moral vs Practical

 

 

Actions are either practical or moral.

 

Moral actions are for the good of society as a whole.

 

Practical actions are for you, your family, your group to succeed over other groups.

 

My morality is grounded in the universal humanist perspective, in which I mean that all humans are equal regardless of differences such as ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and religion. Though one who helps more people has more value than someone who harms more people. I value human interests above the interests of other animals or the rest of the natural world.

I do not expect most people to be completely moral, and that is okay. I expect most people to act somewhat practically in their own interests. Perhaps the most moral people are those who give up their lives to exist as a monk or those who dedicate themselves to solving poverty and disease. I would not put that pressure on everyone to try to attain this level of morality but orient yourself more in that direction rather than the opposite.

Stealing from a large grocery chain to feed their family. A little relativity. And there is a difference between doing something to feed a need vs causing harm just to relish in destruction.

I expect most people to compete (putting themselves above others) for jobs. I expect people to keep their families safe, secure and happy over other families. I won’t say that most people are evil in the way that Peter Singer provocatively articulates. I just don’t believe that people deserve things in a way that many people say. Deserve implies a moral right to / from. As Luke Thomas observantly expressed: what you receive in life is not what you deserve but what you can negotiate.

Relativity can be applied here: stealing from a large grocery chain to feed one’s family is not the equivalent to burning down a house just for perverse pleasure. There is a difference between doing something to satisfy a need vs causing harm just to relish in destruction.

If we consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the practical needs (safety and physiological) are more foundational on the pyramid and moral needs (self-actualization) are elevated above. I don’t think anyone has a moral right to survival, though practically they should try to survive.

I am making the case that practical reasons do not give you some moral high ground. Your country has no moral authority to succeed at the expense of another country. The United States does not have a moral right to act in the interest of their citizens over the interests of citizens in other countries. Being part of a specific religion gives you no moral authority over others in and of itself, though of course being part of a religion may push you to act in the interests of others, which is morally valuable.

What sparked me to embark on this rant is the very human erring of twisting their own interests into some kind of moral right. I will be charitable and say the average person does not do this in an intentionally deceptive way, but I will not give media organizations that same benefit of the doubt. I am not shaming people who say I want this job, I want this house, I want an awesome body. I want those things too, and I say it confidently. Am I entitled to possess those things? Certainly not.

I hope my overuse of italics was not too repetitively repugnant. I thought I was Greek I guess I’m Italican.