Thinking Right & Wrong:
- Ethical and Moral Standards: Prioritizing universal moral principles such as justice, integrity, compassion, and absolute truth.
- Objective Assessment: Evaluating actions and decisions based on their morality and impact rather than political alignment.
- Critical Thinking: Analyzing issues independently, considering evidence and reason rather than ideological bias.
- Unity Over Division: Seeking common ground and solutions that benefit the broader society rather than deepening political divides.
Not Right & Left:
- Avoiding Partisanship: Not letting political party affiliation dictate one’s moral judgments.
- Non-ideological: Looking beyond ideological labels to assess actions and policies’ true nature and consequences.
- Open-mindedness: Being willing to consider and adopt ideas from across the political spectrum if they are ethically sound and beneficial.
- Focusing on Values: Prioritizing core human values like truth, fairness, and kindness over partisan politics.
The Think Right & Wrong, Not Right & Left approach emphasizes the importance of making decisions based on ethical considerations rather than political loyalty.
Today, our society is decaying because we no longer teach, apply, and have logical discussions. The class and culture wars turn humanity into emotional rather than rational creatures.
“When dealing with difficult people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” — Dale Carnegie
Our part in the fight for liberty in this culture and class war is to discipline ourselves and overcome our impulsive, impatient, thoughtless, and instant gratification by tempering our feelings and emotions before they confuse and cause delusion.
Ultimately, what constitutes right or wrong thinking has been argued to be subjective in influencing our cultural, societal, and individual values.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development agrees with and challenges the subjective theory, as an individual evolves from different stages and levels of morality. There are six stages. The higher a person rises, the more objective truths they start to learn and follow. In essence, the lower stages produce subjective misunderstandings.
Our goal as individuals, parents, elected officials, and Americans should be the highest of all stages.
“In Stage 6, individuals are more concerned with the “morality of universal ethical principles.” In this stage, individuals do what they think is right, even if it is in conflict with the law. At this stage, people act according to their internalized standards of morality.”
(1)
“One analysis found that while stages one to four could be considered universal worldwide, the fifth and sixth stages were extremely rare in all populations. Kohlberg believed that only a relatively small percentage of people reach the post-conventional stages (around 10 to 15%).” (2)
I see there are two roads to morality.
One is a false one that will lead to indifference, moral paralysis, inability to effectively evaluate others, and reduced ethics in the form of moral relativism.
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IndifferenceIf moral rightness is based on culture, then “anything goes,” and people may accept moral wrongs without consequence.
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Moral paralysisWithout objective standards to improve against, ethics and morals can change but never improve.
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Inability to effectively evaluate othersIf there are no real standards that are independent of cultural perspectives, it may be difficult to condemn other cultures or individuals for doing wrong.
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Reduced ethicsRelativism can reduce ethics to personal preferences or social conventions, which may not always be the same.
There is a false belief that religion produces self-righteousness. It is about a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior, which wolf one feeds regardless of someone pretending to be religious or one that is removed from religion.
Still, moral relativism produces a holier-than-thou, superior, smug, and pious attitude and mindset. It produces pharisaic (excessively or hypocritically pious) thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
- Superiority: They may believe their morals and beliefs are better than others or morally superior to those different.
- Judgmental: They may criticize others’ mistakes, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities or judge and scrutinize others.
- Intolerant: They may be smug, self-righteous, and narrow-minded.
- Unjustifiable put-downs: They may attempt to put others down as weak or dependent.
- Rigid rules: They may adhere to rigid rules and judge others who don’t follow their standards.
- Inflated sense of self-importance: They may have an inflated sense of their own importance, achievements, or abilities.
- Refusal to admit mistakes: They may refuse to admit their own mistakes, flaws, and shortcomings.
- Lack of interest in learning: They may see no value in learning from others.
- Resistance to outside influences: They may resist outside information and influences.
The outcome is contempt for humanity.
Moral relativism will lead to self-righteousness, and it will evolve into doublespeak.
“Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscured, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., “downsizing” for layoffs and “servicing the target” for bombing), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning. In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth.” (3)
The second path to morality can lead to liberty, freedom, truth, honesty, responsibility, and unity. As we gain moral intelligence, we will reach moral absolutism, universal principles, and Kohlberg’s Stage 6.
Moral intelligence applies ethical principles to personal values, goals, and actions. It comprises four competencies related to integrity, three to responsibility, two to forgiveness, and one to compassion. People with high moral intelligence (MI) levels are usually aware of aligning their values with universal principles, which can lead to purposeful living and organizational success.
“The four competencies of integrity are 1) acting consistently with principles, values, and beliefs, 2) telling the truth, 3) standing up for what is right, and 4) keeping promises. Responsibility’s three competencies are 1) taking personal responsibility, 2) admitting mistakes and failures, and 3) embracing responsibility for serving others. Forgiveness involves 1) letting go of one’s own mistakes and 2) letting go of others’mistakes, and compassion is actively caring about others.” (4)
Some say that developing moral intelligence can lead to more positive and healthy individuals, communities, and other social systems. For example, morally intelligent leaders may be more committed, humble, and willing to risk their interests for the greater good. They may also be more likely to learn from others and create harmony between their words and actions.
The Constitution is as strong as the morality of the people as it requires vigilance and a watchful eye to hold our elected officials and government accountable to their oaths to the blueprint of our country and We the People. This is the direction we want to move toward and to accomplish by Thinking Right & Wrong, Not Right & Left.
