Finding the Line between Right and Wrong

Posted on April 12, 2007 in Life by byronb

The world would fall apart if there were no line between right and wrong. How do we know what is right as distinct from what is wrong? Who lays down the rules? Are there absolute standards of morality or universal mores applicable to everyone? Is it a question of personal choice to draw the line dividing right and wrong? Are right and wrong linked only to religion? Don’t we have moral norms outside religion? What about legal and social issues connected with right and wrong? Don’t the concepts of right and wrong change with time, place and people? There can be an unending debate on these and other related matters concerning human behavioral norms.

Many people think that morality is a matter of personal choice. They say what moral values work for one may not, or need not, work for another. Sally’s dos and don’ts are what she sets for herself and may or may not be different from John’s dos and don’ts. However, Sally and John cannot ignore the fact that unless we have a common standard of morality, they are likely to get involved in unending conflict in inter-personal matters. Sally and John have to agree upon a common line of division between right and wrong in order live and interact with one another in peace.

Every society has established conventions of human behavior relevant to legal, social and religious situations arising in that society. Problems of adjustment and understanding occur when people of one society migrate into another society. Moreover, this migration of people from one country to another is a common feature of modern times. In most case, the immigrants have to learn to change their original norms of behavior in accordance of the demands of the country or society into which they have entered. They have to find the line between right and wrong of the new society, for the sake of being accepted there. Multicultural societies have to deal with the conflict that naturally arises between the norms of morality of one group with those of one of the other groups.

Societies have tended to become more and more permissive, throwing their long established norms and morality to the winds. Younger generations deviate from the ethical values their elders accepted, observed and, now, want to impose on them. New norms of right and wrong come into being and, obviously, they come into conflict with the old norms. Youngsters these days often pay little attention to the advice their elders offer based on what they consider is right and wrong.

Ethical questions about sex outside marriage, deviant sexual behavior, same sex marriages, abortion, mercy killing or euthanasia, capital punishment, continue to bother many, although the opposition to these things is not as enthusiastic in condemning them as before. Future generations may have very new norms for personal and social behavior or the line between what we now consider right and wrong will be blurred or even totally wiped out.

As it is, our awareness about right and wrong is increasingly growing duller, since our moral standards are becoming more and more lax.