Thoughts on morality and ethics
Sep. 25th, 2009 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdOne of the things I had to do in my portfolio for First Realm Class was talk about ethics.
To me, ethics are different than morality.
Morality is imposed on people in order to force them into intrinsicly unpleasant behaviors that the power structure considers useful to its stability and continued dominance.
Ethics are what people decide for themselves about what is right and good and worth pursuing.
High-authoritarian people love morality. They love the structure of it, the neat way everything falls into the categories of "prescribed" (Thou Shalt) or "proscribed" (Thous Shalt Not).
Ethics bothers them. In ethics, there is no structure, except what the person gives it. The essence of ethics is "you may do what is right and good."
I'm not Wiccan, but I've been giving a lot of thought to the Wiccan Rede and other ethical teachings.
The Rede is a hard thing that takes much examination of yourself and your action.
"An it harm none, do as you will."
Harm none. None. Not others, not yourself. That calls into question every possible action you perform, from skipping brushing your teeth one night (harming yourself) to speeding (harming self and others) to the food you eat to the way you live.
Do as you will.
Do you know your own will?
What do you will?
Not only must you know it, you must do it. I can will the laundry to be done all I like, but until I get up and start the washer, it remains undone. (then we're back to the harm thing with choice of detergent, with choice of line or dryer, cold water or warm) Magic is applied will. You push against the matrix of reality when you perform magic, but you have to be dead certain of your will. Because you're part of the matrix and you're pushing yourself as well.
I've been examining my will of late. All my life, I was taught that my own will was a bad thing; it was selfishness and headstrong rebellion. My will. My power. What is it I will? How many years have I been sending harm out into the matrix, both inadvertantly and deliberately, both free-floating and targeted? Now, what do I will? What do I need? And how do I stop sending out the bad stuff?
***
In many cases, morality is assumed to mean sexual morality. Of a girl who gets pregnant very young, we say, "She just wasn't raised with good morals."
But is there an intrinsic value to virginity? Or even fidelity when there is no formal agreement to it? Or are we holding over and imposing notions from a time when a daughter's marriageability (hence the end of her family spending money on her) was determined by her sexual status?
And what of those whose ethics say that sex, freely given, freely received, is a good thing to be shared? Or those who think it is a holy thing, a blessing to be shared with those one is guided to? (This assumes consentual, non-coercive relationships. Underage teens and children are incapable of consent and must always be considered coerced, as must animals. Harm none.) For them, having sex is the right and good thing to do.
One of my personal ethical rules is "Don't harm the littles." It comes straight from SW fanfic, a part of Chewbacca's personal code. (Everyone is little to him, hence the phrasing) "A little" means anyone with less physical, mental, emotional, economic or social power than you. It is a sexual ethic, in that it requires sex to be shared with someone on a equal footing with yourself: a consenting adult who is not coerced through any means, including emotional. But it also covers many other things: how to treat children. How to treat the poor. How to treat the handicapped. How to deal with class issues. Some call it Noblesse Oblige, the idea that with privilege comes responsibilities. "With great power comes great responsibility."
***
It's all very complicated, because adults deal in shades of grey. I am not a high authoritarian person. Rules leave me rebellious
I grow more deeply in love with Micah 6:8 each day:
He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Do justly. Be fair and honest and scrupulous in all dealings (harm none)
Love mercy. Feel for others (even though they be turkeys). Treat them the way they want to be treated. (harm none, do your will)
Walk with your god(s). Optional for those without, but vital for those with. (do your will)
Easy. Except it's not. It's pretty much everything.
To me, ethics are different than morality.
Morality is imposed on people in order to force them into intrinsicly unpleasant behaviors that the power structure considers useful to its stability and continued dominance.
Ethics are what people decide for themselves about what is right and good and worth pursuing.
High-authoritarian people love morality. They love the structure of it, the neat way everything falls into the categories of "prescribed" (Thou Shalt) or "proscribed" (Thous Shalt Not).
Ethics bothers them. In ethics, there is no structure, except what the person gives it. The essence of ethics is "you may do what is right and good."
I'm not Wiccan, but I've been giving a lot of thought to the Wiccan Rede and other ethical teachings.
The Rede is a hard thing that takes much examination of yourself and your action.
"An it harm none, do as you will."
Harm none. None. Not others, not yourself. That calls into question every possible action you perform, from skipping brushing your teeth one night (harming yourself) to speeding (harming self and others) to the food you eat to the way you live.
Do as you will.
Do you know your own will?
What do you will?
Not only must you know it, you must do it. I can will the laundry to be done all I like, but until I get up and start the washer, it remains undone. (then we're back to the harm thing with choice of detergent, with choice of line or dryer, cold water or warm) Magic is applied will. You push against the matrix of reality when you perform magic, but you have to be dead certain of your will. Because you're part of the matrix and you're pushing yourself as well.
I've been examining my will of late. All my life, I was taught that my own will was a bad thing; it was selfishness and headstrong rebellion. My will. My power. What is it I will? How many years have I been sending harm out into the matrix, both inadvertantly and deliberately, both free-floating and targeted? Now, what do I will? What do I need? And how do I stop sending out the bad stuff?
***
In many cases, morality is assumed to mean sexual morality. Of a girl who gets pregnant very young, we say, "She just wasn't raised with good morals."
But is there an intrinsic value to virginity? Or even fidelity when there is no formal agreement to it? Or are we holding over and imposing notions from a time when a daughter's marriageability (hence the end of her family spending money on her) was determined by her sexual status?
And what of those whose ethics say that sex, freely given, freely received, is a good thing to be shared? Or those who think it is a holy thing, a blessing to be shared with those one is guided to? (This assumes consentual, non-coercive relationships. Underage teens and children are incapable of consent and must always be considered coerced, as must animals. Harm none.) For them, having sex is the right and good thing to do.
One of my personal ethical rules is "Don't harm the littles." It comes straight from SW fanfic, a part of Chewbacca's personal code. (Everyone is little to him, hence the phrasing) "A little" means anyone with less physical, mental, emotional, economic or social power than you. It is a sexual ethic, in that it requires sex to be shared with someone on a equal footing with yourself: a consenting adult who is not coerced through any means, including emotional. But it also covers many other things: how to treat children. How to treat the poor. How to treat the handicapped. How to deal with class issues. Some call it Noblesse Oblige, the idea that with privilege comes responsibilities. "With great power comes great responsibility."
***
It's all very complicated, because adults deal in shades of grey. I am not a high authoritarian person. Rules leave me rebellious
I grow more deeply in love with Micah 6:8 each day:
He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Do justly. Be fair and honest and scrupulous in all dealings (harm none)
Love mercy. Feel for others (even though they be turkeys). Treat them the way they want to be treated. (harm none, do your will)
Walk with your god(s). Optional for those without, but vital for those with. (do your will)
Easy. Except it's not. It's pretty much everything.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 11:03 pm (UTC)Also, Wiccans came up with the Law of 3 (not really...but the wording of it)...where all that you do comes back to you 3-fold. It is their way of saying that you should make sure of the things you do, positive begets positive, negative begets negative...but multiplied. In this way they try to instill not to be or do negative towards each other. Such is the way with other peoples...as I get to below- although they use a different means to arrive there.
There is a code of ethics among Norsemen. Basically put, everyone, every animal and every thing has it's "honor price". That is to say, as long as you understand the price you must pay, go ahead. There are examples of people killing someone, and proceeding to leave a bag of gold (or whatever the honor price happened to be), and that was the end of it. Any retaliation on the part of the friends/loved ones was uncalled for and punishments resulted. This is not to say that retaliations did not exist...hell...the Norse had their own Hatfields and McCoys.
In the Native view, all things, animals and people are related. And as such, all things (mostly) were/are treated as you would treat any family member. Children were/are raised with stories of this animal or that doing this thing or that, to this one/thing or that. And the result of those actions is in the stories as well...they tel children how and why to do this thing and why, and to not do that thing, and why.
As for sexual morality. Anytime anyone says something like; a girl who sleeps around or got pregnant early "was raised with no morals". This is simply an ethnocentric point of view. Different cultures have different traditions based on the needs of the people/society. I do not presume to say that sex and sexuality are a different topic in this regard. But then we get into people picking up a culture and using it to justify there own desires/vices/depravities- I don't think that is right to do...I have called many people out on it over the years (almost entirely pagans using some form of paganism to justify their vice/desire/etc... such as claiming to be Norse "because they love to drink and so do I", or claiming to be Native American "because smoking tobacco is sacred to them". I think this mentality has more to do with thinking less of yourself and trying to come up with ways to justify not being comfortable with yourself.
But, what about the people back in the day...the temple prostitutes and such like that. It was part of their culture (as I spoke of before). I neither condone or condemn it...as it is not my tradition or culture.
many people say that we are just animals and the male animal is born and raised to impregnate as many females as it can in its time. But, this is a fallacy. Many animals take one mate (maybe take another if that one dies...I cannot say), and there's quite a few that actually mat for life with one partner. The swan comes to mind (as just one example)...in Celtic thought, Swan is the symbol for fidelity (among other things).
this really is a difficult topic (morality and ethics in general...and specifically with sex and sexuality).
no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 11:19 pm (UTC)I'm coming out of Christian fundamentalism and moving into paganism. I half-jokingly say I follow the Wookiee faith: a deep connection to the Force and tree-ish metaphors for the supernatural. But only half. The first pagan deities I connected to were Athena and Freyja, but the first that called to me was the Green Man.
Like I said, I did a paper on this for a class I'm taking in the pagan church I attend. And I got to thinking hard today as I drove.
There are a lot of people, of all faiths, who use their religion to justify hideous stuff. The fastest growing religion among white racists is Asatru, a form of nordic paganism. I've seen Christian ministers use their Bible to justify everything from kicking out their kids to bedding their parishoners.
And there are people who get into religions to justify exactly what they want to do.
Parke Godwin, in The Snake Oil Wars has stuck L. Ron Hubbard as an answering machine in the afterlife. "I died rich from inventing a religion. The key is taking what people want to do anyway, calling it self-actualization and charging them to progress toward it."
But as Robert Fulghum says, the Examined Life is no picnic. I'm learning this.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 07:35 am (UTC)For instance, if I believe killing people is immoral, my ethics are to not support the death penalty.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 07:52 am (UTC)So, from my point of view, hon, I believe that ethically, if someone has wronged me in a serious enough manner (say, killed my sister), I would be well within my rights to punish the person myself in a like manner (killing him in return). However, because in our society, it is considered immoral (and thus against the law) to take another person's life, I cannot. Or, another one would be that if I fell in love with two people, and those two felt love for each other as well, why cannot all three of us get married? Ethically, since we're all consenting, it should be possible. Morally, in our society, it would be wrong because marriage should be one man and one woman only. *shrugs*
I hope that helps you see a little more of what
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 07:17 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's just the exact opposite of what I was trying to say and perhaps not saying well because I haven't had reason to get all academic about morals/ethics in awhile. The Wise Geek probably explains it better with:
Morals define personal character, while ethics stress a social system in which those morals are applied. In other words, ethics point to standards or codes of behavior expected by the group to which the individual belongs. This could be national ethics, social ethics, company ethics, professional ethics, or even family ethics. So while a person’s moral code is usually unchanging, the ethics he or she practices can be other-dependent.
I'm pretty sure I got
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 07:41 am (UTC)Seriously, though, you've got the right of it. Morals are those ethical choices that are forced by societal demands rather than personal. For my part, my ethics don't fit too terribly well within the societal morals. But, I do place a high value on my honor, which would include following the laws of the land I live in. Thus, I deal with not being able to do certain things my ethics would justify.
My sexual ethics are pretty simple. I won't sleep with anyone who doesn't or cannot consent. This means no kids, no emotionally handicapped, no animals, and nothing dead. I won't sleep with anyone related to me (though incest pr0n is hawt!) And I will not engage in any activity with someone who is committed without the other partner's knowledge and blessing.
We live in a country founded on Puritanical principles, and that's still carried over to this day precisely because Christianity is the predominant religious sect in our country. Some things have changed, and change will continue, but it is going to be at a snail's pace. It wasn't that long ago, in the grand scheme of things, that girls were married by 12/13 and a mother 9 months later. *shrugs*
Really, "harm none" is a phrase I could do without, because if we stuck to that, magic simply could not happen. I've found, over the years, that it is best to take each situation, each need, each spell and weigh it. Don't place the "harm none" measurement to it, but do consider what harm may be caused versus your own desires and be absolutely sure you are willing to accept the consequences of your actions. This has never stopped me from cursing/hexing someone when there was need. And honestly, I think the Universe is a little more fair when you are willing to accept the consequences versus just doing what you want, when you want to.
Overall, ethics can cause a lot of hard, deep thinking. I highly recommend it! ^.^
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 01:58 pm (UTC)I won't say I've never hexed someone. I prefer to use headology, though. The rebound on the hex was very ugly. Headology is all the target's doing.
Sometimes, you just gotta stand tall and take the blow back.