Moral Simplicity
“Moral Complexity” is a term I recently came across on a video gaming blog post which got me thinking about our collective pursuit of sound sense of morality (well, at least I like to think we are pursuing it). We come across situations, particularly those regarding life and death, that overwhelm us with uncertainty over a choice that has or will be made.
And when we do come across such situations we label them as complex.
It is almost as if applying such a label is a get-out-of-jail-free card in that if we have made the ‘wrong’ choice (in the eyes of a higher power) then that is ‘OK’ because it was too complex for us in the first place. We stay in the grey area because it is believed to be safe. And our acceptance of our imperfections is what is keeping us there.
Whether or not this is the case I hope there is something profound in us all that is trying to achieve the opposite: a simpler view of morality; where there is no over-abundance of rules and exceptions for different situations, no fear in approaching a choice to make, and no remorse shown no matter the outcome.
Tags: morality
