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Is universal morality a key difference in our cultural conflict? [1]

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Date: 2022-12-03

I am defining universal morality as the idea that moral rules and behavior should be applied to all humans equally. Many will extend universal morality to animals.

Religions that claim to be universal, such as Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism, teach universal morality. Many secular philosophies also teach universal morality. Probably much of moral philosophy originates with the Golden Rule, treat others as you would like others to treat you. It is not that hard to realize that others include everyone. There are some philosophies that do not teach universal morality. Nietzsche and Ayn Rand do not, they teach variations on the idea that the “superior” person does not have to consider the effect of their actions on others.

I do not think that anyone will treat all people as equally important. Almost everyone will give priority to the welfare of family and friends over other people. Most people will value their own countrymen over people in other countries. But there are real differences between groups in our country on how they approach treatment of other people.

Those of us who call ourselves progressives want to have fair and compassionate treatment for everyone. That includes people of different color, immigrants, disabled people, people with different religions, and people with different ideas about sex and gender. We want medical care to be available to everyone. We want everyone to have freedom, prosperity, and safety. We want these things for people around the world. We might not know how to provide all of these things, but we know the goal.

The people in the conservative movement do not always want these things. This applies to the old style business conservatives, and the new style Trump “populists”. They don’t want immigrants. They don’t want society to ensure that everyone gets medical care. They don’t want any efforts to equalize the position of people of color. The common thread is they are afraid any measure to help anyone different will reduce their own position and power. They believe everything is zero-sum. If anyone else wins, they lose. It is getting worse, they seem to accept unlimited narcissism and dishonesty in their leaders. The influence of philosophies like Ayn Rand’s is getting stronger.

Consider that conservatives and Trump cultists are a substantial percentage of the US population. Most of these people consider themselves moral, and behave morally with their family, friends, and community. If they ever thought about it, they might consider themselves as following a universal morality as taught by Christianity. But they are being fed messages meant to frighten them about other groups. With zero-sum thinking they are worried that somehow other groups will take away things from their families and friends. Some even think that they are being menaced by demonic forces. Bad leadership amplifies these fears and turns people against each other.

I think that universal morality is not the default feeling of most people. The natural reaction is to separate your group from others and be suspicious or fearful of other groups. Anything more universal has to be taught, and even when people believe it they do not always act on that belief.

As long as universal morality is not universally followed, we will have problems that are difficult to solve and sometimes we will face cruel dilemmas. For instance, to keep Ukraine from being conquered, robbed and oppressed by Putin’s Russia, Russian soldiers will have to be killed. The worst part of that is that Putin is far more at fault for the invasion than most of the soldiers dying in his name. We have to defend ourselves sometimes whether we want to or not. Will things ever change, or will the human race always have these bad things inflicted on it? I guess I will never know, maybe in some far future world things will turn around.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/3/2139873/-Is-universal-morality-a-key-difference-in-our-cultural-conflict

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