Philosophy: (3 of 3) Zen & Ethics

(beginning here)

On my retreat I also did some work on a little moral dilemma I’ve been caught in lately. It has to do, speaking generally, with being caught between

1. being a young man (fun-loving, a bit rebellious, care free, etc) and
2. being an adult (respecting others, accepting responsibilities).

I am finding myself less and less justifying my actions with ‘who cares?‘ and much less so with ‘who’s gonna find out, anyhow?‘, two key phrases of youth.

I was reminded on the retreat, during the drive home actually, of a kind of practical ethics I learned a few years back. It was a kind of Kantian ethics which simply asked that you ‘act always as you would, knowing that your actions would be printed in the New York Times.’ It’s an incredibly high standard when you think about it, but one I no less wish to strive toward. Most people, I fear, don’t even think they are worthy of striving for such a goal.

The other ethics I thought about, this time on the drive up, was that of the slippery slope: where we take a tiny bit, abuse the system a tiny bit, offend or disrespect others a tiny bit, all with the excuse that it really is only a tiny bit. No doubt disgraced congressman “Duke” Cunningham justified his actions this way (in the face of a $2.4 trillion budget, who’s going to care where $5 or 10 million goes?). I would guess that most of today’s criminals started out taking something that they justified as insignificant or they felt they were somehow entitled to, and so on.

Yet I’m not trying to say that moral perfection is the only right way to go; only that one should not rationalize stepping out onto that slippery slope. One should instead think of how to alleviate existing moral weaknesses. For in the end one discovers that it is moral weakness that stands in the way of meaningful relationships, secure prosperity, and lasting happiness.

I also can’t say that I’ve necessarily solved my moral dilemma when it comes to how I’ll behave in the coming days and months. I can’t just turn off my old habits and ways of seeing the world. But I can strive to be better. And I will live with more awareness of what I take, with whom I am impatient or rude, and whether I respect the rules and institutions around me.