The Dispersion of Our Moral Energies

Humans have long been, and remain, deeply attached to morality. Even confirmed criminals will say things like “That ain’t right,” which is purely a moral judgment. And this focus on morality holds across the panorama of human of life. Examine any workplace and you’ll find a long stream of moral judgments: “He didn’t treat me right,” “She’s arrogant,” “That’s a man you can respect,” and so on.

This moral obsession of ours is a good thing; it’s the bedrock that allows us to enjoy a civilized existence. That said, we’ve allowed our moral energies to be wasted, and that’s something we need to fix. But before continuing, consider this, please:

Any assemblage of people that is insufficiently safe and cooperative internally (morally), must force everyone to behave well. As a practical matter, this guarantees that it will choke itself to death.

So, morality is indespensible as a practical matter. If we fail to cultivate it, we plant the seeds of our own ruin. Such ruin is unavoidable, even if it takes many years to be clearly seen. Dispersion The leading issue with morality in our era is not that it is suppressed (though that happens too), but that it’s so widely dispersed as to have little or no effect. Here’s the problem in a nutshell:

Humans have limited amounts of energy, and that includes energy for moral concerns. If that energy is widely dispersed, little or none can be focused on the moral concerns that really matter.

The internal energies of a “normie” couple, for example, are almost fully directed away from serious moral issues. This couple will devote their emotional and moral strength toward whatever terror is in their newsfeed, perhaps to a pet or a sports team, and definitely toward hating one political party or another. They may also spend time complaining about all the little moral failures they saw that day. After all that, they’re simply too tired for weightier matters; it’s far easier to spit out a slogan and roll into bed. The Winners The big winners in this situation are the entities that need to stay out of the moral spotlight. I’ll leave you to decide who those entities are, but they are assuredly those who work against moral focus and clarity. Even if they don’t do this intentionally, they soon enough learn that frightened, tired and distracted people are far better for them than confident, energetic and thoughtful people. So, the names on your list (should you wish to make one) would be:

• • Those who frighten you.

• • The imposers of shame.

• • Those who hold themselves above being questioned.

• • Those who claim special standing and privileges.

Such entities are acting as if they cannot endure comparison to clear moral standards like the golden rule, and in this we should believe them: They win by directing our moral energies to harmless targets. And So… And so we morally-sensitive humans (which is nearly all of us) must recognize that we’re vulnerable in this way. We must grasp that our moral energies are first of all more important than we’ve believed, and secondly that they must be conserved, rather than allowing them to be scattered every which way.

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Paul Rosenberg

freemansperspective.com

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