Morality is a disease (by Luce)

As humans, we like to pride ourselves in having morality, that it is something special that nothing else on earth has.  We can see good and bad, right and wrong, and act according to this moral sense.  This, then, exalts us above the other animals who lack the sense of morality.  I argue the opposite.  Morality is what makes humans the lowest of the animals.  Morality is an ungodly disease.

Case #1: Supposed moral authorities

Many of us let morality go to our heads.  For instance, take GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.  They pride themselves as morally superior authorities who find it acceptable to legislate their own moral views upon everyone else, especially in cases where survival is not an issue.  Santorum has been particularly vigilant to rail against homosexuality, claiming nothing short that it is an abomination.  How does he know that it is an abomination?  He does not.  Homosexuality is not a mortally threatening practice like murder, so why does he care?  Santorum’s moral sense is to force others to follow what he personally deems to be the “right” practice, where there is no justification that what he believes is actually right.  Moral sense corrupts.

Santorum is but one in a litany of people who presuppose a morally-than-thou mentality.  Michelle Bachmann, Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, the Pope, most priests and pastors, most Christians, and probably your neighbor.  The issues these moral authorities care about and might even die for range from homosexuality and abortion to clothing style, parenting techniques, and eating practices.  These people want to enter your lives and make you change your beliefs and ways to suit them.

Case #2: Animal cruelty

Have you heard of teenagers putting cats and puppies in microwaves?  In 2008 in Alberta, Canada, two teenage boys broke into some home, put a cat in the microwave and cooked it to death.  They listened to the cat’s screams for 10 minutes till the cat died.  These boys found pleasure in such an act.

Have you heard of animal poaching where humans find rhinos and elephants for their horns and tusks?  These people rip the horns and tusks right off the animals and leave the animal alive to die an agonizing death.  I’d include a picture, but it turns my stomach so.  Humans see “value” in those materials.  They pay handsome sums for them, and thus, people search out these treasures.

Would a cat put a human in an oven and cook the human for fun?  Would a rhino find a human and pull off its arms to sell?  No.  Such animals would never even think of such things.  They cannot.  We call them “brutes” because they cannot have such thoughts, but to be a brute appears to be a lot better than these creatures who have this moral sense.  We use the term “brute” as a pejorative term; I rather find it a compliment.  Moral sense is a disease.

Case #3: The history of humankind

Have you pondered the history of human “civilization?”  We call it “civilization,” but it is nothing of the sort.  To be “civil,” is to be respectful, well-behaved, and kind.  Human history is nothing but a continual assortment of wars, conflict, and domination.  The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, British, French, Germans, and Americans (to name a few), all “progressed” through war and colonization.  We celebrate Thanksgiving without understanding that we raped, pillaged, and killed many of the Native Americans.  But that is how humankind operates.  We left England because of Morality.  We dominated the Native Americans because of Morality.  All war is based on Morality, or rather a difference in Moralities.

We, as humans, don’t know how to live peacefully with one another.  Moral sense corrupts and disrupts.  Many today still look at someone else’s skin color and deem the person morally inferior.

I know that some of you will say that many people are still “good” (though I don’t know how that would apply to the macro view of our history).  Yes, there are many who abuse this moral sense, but there are many who are responsible.  I ask, is it worth it?  I say that we do not know how to control this disease and it has spread in all of its vile ways.  It has done way more harm than good.  Are you blameless so far in your life?  Have you ever committed some act of cruelty or made someone feel bad because of some triviality?  If so, the world would have been better without you having moral sense at all.  All your good will never make up for even the tiniest act of cruelty.  Humanity was not ready to handle the burden of moral sense.  Our disease is consuming us.

My pillars: Mark Twain, Dostoevsky, Schopenhauer.