Garbled ramblings

Posted by Jay-talking! |0 comments

As it happens sometimes, someone starts a debate unwittingly. You get drawn into it inspite of the lack of time due to your everyday machiavellian struggles in office, maybe just coz the debate does force you to pause for a moment to think, maybe coz the debate just ranks a tad above mindless, just having that wee more pull to engage your attention and your time. In that spirit comes this piece from a friend who is going through a slightly see-saw time in her life and my take on it.

Am I a good person? I struggle with this question all the time. I'm not even sure why its important to me. But it is. I wud like to know that I am a good person. I dont think I do anything that would put me in the bad-evil category though.

But why does one have to be good anyway? I dunno. And what makes a good person anyway? I try to be honest and truthful. But I may still lie, not to harm people but to get out of situations. Small white lies, they call them. I try to help people when I can. I will even donate money now and then.

I definitely want to be in the good category. Does being honest make me good? Do I have to help people? How much?

Do I have to live simply and/or modestly? I give up non-vegetarian food, I quit smoking, and I quit drinking. Does living modestly cover this up?

Is it okay for me to eat and drink well when I know there are people in the world who dont get anything to eat? It surely doesnt help them, right? Or do I have to send money to charities that would provide them with food as well as live modestly? How often? Does a donation I made a year ago cover me still? Does it make me a bad person if I claim it as a tax deduction?

And what about cursing/swearing? If I swear all the time does that make me lose points? What about alcohol and sex? Do we get classified in 'good' or 'bad' based on our sex life? What about pornography? How does that figure in? And what about sex-for-money? Is it okay to pay for it? Or give it for money? What are the rules here?

Anyway, I suppose that's where religion comes in. Codes. Religions provide a code to make it easy. But the problem with religious codes is that we cant determine which is the truly divinely given one.

So do we make our own code? A secular code? Hmm... this leads us into sociological mores and all that. Hmm... interesting.

Why does it have to be so complicated? Wudnt it be much easier if we could be told everything - namely who created us and what he, she or it wants us to do. Give us proof of ownership and a book of rules.

My take:

You just feel 'moral goodness' thru an instrument called conscience - judging everything around you using that barometer.

However somewhere down the line, the more boundaries you conquer..the more blurred the lines become between good & bad, since the boundaries you have conquered have given an impetus to other targets in life. Maybe then it becomes okay to sacrifice integrity at the altar of ambition. Maybe then it becomes okay just to tell that extra set of lies to save somebody's life, to help a friend in need, to set birds free, to save wildlife from extinction & many such noble causes since the causes are "noble" to you & hence better (again judgmental) causes. Then maybe somewhere again down that track, when you are going a little too fast you think about whether its worth it to do those things that you have been doing and probably change your mind on whats good & whats not. But the fact remains that there is a silent consensus on whats good that even a baby would know. Its like knowing tings like pain, laughing, sweet, dark etc. You do not need to explain this in detail to KG kids, or do we? Thats why people find books like Fountainhead very appealing.

Your take?