Fragile morality and ethics

You won't find anyone who claims not to have any ethical or moral values. Even hate-mongering leaders, ruthless dictators, mass murderers, criminals, and psychopaths claim to have moral standards and ethics. Rather, hate-mongering politicians and other people regularly use morality and ethics to propagate hate and animosity between different groups. Some people try to justify wars and genocides under the name of self-defense and/or for upholding moral principles like peace and harmony. Some people justify communal riots under the name of upholding the honor of religion or protecting that religion. I wonder when everyone believes in moral and ethical principles like love, kindness, harmony, and peace, then who are the people who are responsible for so much hatred and violence that is going on around the world. Difference of opinion is a healthy sign for any society, but who are the people who are polarizing the society? What happens to these widely publicized ethical and moral values when any country attacks another country brutally killing innocent civilians who never did anything to hurt that country? Are these moral and ethical principles so fragile that they crumble when we face any conflict and pressure? Are these moral and ethical principles so fragile that we remember them only when we are at the receiving end of hate and violence? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

It is easy to preach peace, kindness, and love when there is no conflict and when nothing is at stake, but the time we face any threat or conflict we hang these principles out of the door and engage in all kinds of unethical and immoral acts under the name of self-defense. Yes, self-defense is necessary, responding to any violent attack is necessary, and protecting territorial interests is necessary. But it is also necessary to keep in mind the scale and proportionality of our response, to keep in mind that innocent civilians are not enemy targets but are also enemy victims. This is something we must debate as a society if at all we are serious about strong moral and ethical values. In the past and even today people all over the world remained mute spectators to the carnage of innocent civilians. We cannot allow this to continue without being labeled as hypocrites who only care about moral and ethical values only when it suits us. Currently, these values are very fragile, they break even when a little external pressure is applied to them. It is up to us to decide if we are okay with such a fragile value system or society or if we really want to practice what we preach. The choice is ours and as we judge historical events, future generations will judge us for our conveniently fragile morality and ethics.      

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

© Vinay Thakur, All rights reserved, Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com