I've thought a lot about people and how and why they can do certain things without remorse and how society makes lots of wiggle room for such people. I begin to wonder whether our laws are capable of reflecting what is happening in the world and whether or not they are designed to search out truths or just manage people (Maybe more the later but perhaps some of the former.). Throughout the years I have seen people do wonderful things (The best human nature has to offer.) and I have seen people act worse than savage animals (Animals are not cruel because they are either hungry or protective. It is us humans that can move beyond natural constraints of need and into sadistic pleasures.). What we find is that there is an indifference in the world to certain behaviors and it shields us from a higher planes of personal and societal existence.
While I cannot explain how or why the values we have learned in childhood are so easy to discarded, I can say that its dangerous to think about how quickly and easily we are fooled into believing things that in hindsight were obviously inappropriate. We get jealous spread a lie, want some money steal it, have a mental health issue attack others, feeling bad about yourself put someone down, someone overshadows you make a false police report (I couldn't find much on biology and lying but I suspect their is a connection. You can read something about liars.) Its seems so easy!
(By the way I'm not talking about those white lies that are meant not to hurt others feelings or to maintain privacy to an inappropriate question. We are talking intentional lies of self gain.)
I'm surprised we made it this far as a civilization. If we were all of the mindset "anything goes" we couldn't possibly have long-term peace and stability. There would be no universally accepted rules and that would reduce truth, law, and order. Imagine a world where anything and everything is acceptable and the systems in place decides things on power, race/religion, financial interest, social/political connections and convenience. Such a people would be doomed to failure because few societies could survive when rules don't reflect truth and are not universal by nature (Why I advocate for universal truths that apply to all people. Think about it, if the rules aren't reflective of truth then they have no real value to the masses. Crime will rise and institutional trust will decline).
If I ever go into politics, which I'm thinking at the moment its not the place for me (I'm a little sensitive to injustice and intentionally cruel falsehood. Truth may be somewhat subjective but it should be genuinely believed. I can't just say blah blah blah to get people to vote for me without feeling bad about myself for providing intentionally false information. I debate it over and over and how I feel about politics is depending on the day. Likewise parties often support people who are willing to say only specific things even when those things don't accurately reflect "truth". i.e. like politicians from either attacking each other without any sense of civility. Conscience is curse sometimes! 🤷), I wouldn't care what the political interests think (I say that but maybe I would. I don't know...I haven't been in exactly that type of situation. Similar but not exact. ). Established interests often donate and support anyone as long as its faction based and gets them the things they want. Its not how systems should run and its inherently dangerous and leads to societal-governmental decline (In fantasy land we might find supporting people for their values and characteristics might lead to better end results and lots of positive social prompting/learning.). I think I would just say what I believe to be true and if that ends in a guillotine of some metaphorical end...it would be better than bending a knee to falsehood (Maybe? Lots of different ways to look at it. Put me in a guillotine and I will probably change my mind. Its kind of what history does to its thinkers anyway. 😬).
The good news is that even when things seem sort of distorted, over the long run we begin to realize our falsehoods and make unconscious (sometimes conscious) corrections. Maybe we can't admit it to ourselves, or within our history books, but we start to slowly do the right things because deep down we know its better for everyone. I think we know intuitively there are certain time honored values that must be passed from generation to generation despite institutional weakness at any particular time and space in history. At least we can hope this to be true....I suspect it is.....but slow and clunky change by wading through self interest and lack of insight. People have so many day-to-day things to worry about and yet...these are the things I ponder (Kind of sad I know.😢)
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