Psychs have made their wisdom known in ways that resulted in dictionaries changing their definitions, time coincident with their appearance in society. Before this time period, the early 1900’s, ethics and justice had clear definitions, but then became very confusing.
Use any dictionary and look up the definition of ethics and moral and you will find they are actually cross referencing each other. Ethics says see moral while moral says see ethics.
In other word no definitions.
We will cover both here, but before doing so there is more to it. Words are important as they allow us to share views and experiences towards improving the quality of life. In fact, words can save people’s lifespan as well as end them.
They only work as well as they are agreed upon. If I say Run, rocks are falling! and you think it means Sit down, rock music is coming, well you can see the problem. Especially subtle and not so obvious changes can slowly change things to mean different things.
For example I remember when the word shit became something desirable, it was the best as in That was some good shit. Before then you avoided shit. And the change from saying shit with a frown and then do it with awe and we can see the small change with great difference in the meanings.
Other changes include killing and murder. Killing is when you remove life from something alive, but murder is when you, as a human, kill a human in an unlawful way, compared to self defense. You cannot murder an animal only kill it. You can certainly kill it in an unnecessarily brutal way such as torture.
Interestingly, animals kill each other all the time, it is how most of them stay alive, they kill to eat.
As humans we have a lot of options when it comes to staying alive. Over time we realized that helping each other makes us stronger and we all survive better. Caring for each other increases everyone’s survival potential. Caring is one of those things that is hard to fake and easy to recognize.
Because of a lack of caring we often end up raising children in ways that undermines their sense of value and security. In trying to survive the insecure child can make decisions that may not be based on care and a desire to help but to gain some position of power where others cannot hurt them.
When generations come and go with a lack of understanding each new generation lack the education to ensure their offspring are raised to nurture and help others. When the signs of lack of care and a desire to help is missing, it is easy to predict future trouble.
The morals of a group, or individual, are based on what the group believes is good survival. For a group of criminals that means it is immoral to help others not part of their group as that can mean a threat to them. Criminals typically travel with lies and deceit to cover up their crimes. They do not want light to shine on their activities. In fact they will do anything to undermine law and order as that is a direct threat to them.
Ethics on the other hand deals with what is pro survival for all. An action is ethical if it solves more, helps more than it hurts and destroys. Ethics is what an individual applies to him/her self towards better survival. Justice is what the group applies to an individual when said person fails to make ethical decisions. Of course in a criminal group it is inverted and justice is applied to the moral values of the group, for example, telling the cops the truth.
We humans all carry abilities, some not always visible and obvious and maybe more hidden than not. One of them is an inherent ability to tell right from wrong. Another ability we can demonstrate is to hide the truth from ourselves, lost like the fading memory of a lost friend from long ago.
The truth is only a threat when shining a light on something you did, or failed to do when you should have done it. Truth allows finding solutions to problems, whereas lies hides solutions. Then it is only a matter of having personal integrity to want to improve your survival potential.
There is this point as well. Telling the truth and help others survive better can carry a cost in the loss of friendship who were maybe not as ethical as you thought or assumed. It is said that during hardship you learn who your real friends are.
We all like to have friends, and may consider ourselves as wealthy as we have friends. Here the trick lies in being able to tell what is a friend and recognize especially those who are not. Most people will inherently be friendly, others might be too shy and not able to look you in the eye. Some people don’t have clean hands and travel in deceit and lies to cover up what typically initially only added up to some minor transgression, but unhandled was allowed to fester from misdeeds and become crimes.
Look around and see what are people doing, not what they are saying but what they are actually doing. Does solutions or problems follow them around? If you are trying to fix your car but cannot figure out what is wrong, one can say that the truth is missing.
If you are kicking the tires in an attempt to get the car to start then it could be said that you are operating with a lie. You are attacking the wrong why as to why the car is not starting. If you know that it needs gas, or a charged battery, then that opens the door to get the car running.
Another truth is that all of society and indeed, the world, are interconnected. Just look at when the US economy goes down the world feels it. When a virus is able to travel the world feels it. When one man makes new policy it can travel the world.
When one individual is suffering it rarely stays with that one person, it reaches everyone around in some way or another. If that person is spreading lies that threatens others it becomes the responsibility of each person around to do something to stop the lies from spreading.
How you stop the spreading is a different story. It should be done in a way that helps more than it hurts. Then it depends on the type of lie, it could be something you simply ignore, or something you counter with truth. If a child lies and claims there is a tiger behind you, and you are not in Africa, it would be safe to not take action as if there was indeed a tiger behind you.
If a neighbor spreads lies about you to other neighbors claiming you stole something you could throw a neighborhood party inviting people to your home. Not the typical action of a thief. And confront the person in private first and if that does not work in public. Of course anytime you do things in public it will bring a lot more attention and that can be counter productive.
Take the Streisand effect, Ms Streisand made a big deal of something small and it become a big thing as it spread across media. Before that it was only known by a few people.
When a city official throws accusations around. You see how the sphere of influence is important, the bigger the influence the bigger the impact and therefore the bigger responsibility you have for the effects you create.
Not all lies are a threat to survival. If a stranger comes and asks where your child is, it is helping your child’s survival to lie. If an enemy asks questions it is probably not good to help.
But these are far more unusual than the rule of what you will run into.
The simple little things that people do as a matter of routine makes a big difference. The store clerk, gas station attendant, waiter, policeman, neighbor who greats people with a sincere smile and warm welcome helps spreading positiveness.
Spreading bad and unverified news undermine people. Too many are in situations where they don’t know what comes next and their attitude can make all the difference as to what they do. Take the person who has been poked and prodded by life and is now left with little tolerance of more random events in their life. Imagine the impact a warm greeting vs a cold one can have on them.
Society is very interconnected, and the more you can spread positiveness that helps and does not hide or undermine your’s and everyone else survival the better we all will do. Try walking around with a smile on your face. And if you have a hard time doing that simply stand in front of a mirror and force a smile on your face. You will laugh I promise!
When you walk down the street with a smile total strangers will greet you and say hello or share the smile, it is quite magical. Sometimes I get the idea that they think we must know each other and greet me to not be rude. Others just happily smile back at me.
The government have said that in an emergency we are on our own, well let’s be on our own together! We have the choice about how we go about life, and I can tell you starting with a more positive attitude, especially when there does not seem to be any, can make all the difference.