If morality
Means anything,
It means that
We shouldn’t want to hurt others,
Or ourselves,
And should probably try
To do the opposite
Tag: Ethics
Human Value
We’re diverse in type
But same worth
Across all groupings
To share is human:
Selling Out
Back home, they call it “selling out”,
But everywhere, it’s subtle —
A word said here, or not said there,
With no chance for rebuttal —
So one man packs his boxes, and
Another man moves in —
They know, back home, you’re selling out,
Because you’re so
Bought in
To share is human:
The Modern Via Negativa
You cannot say what something is
By saying what it’s not;
That is the new dilemma in which
Modern times are caught
The “Don’t do this,” and “Don’t be this”
We have in some abundance;
In fact, we say these things so much
It’s kind of a redundance
The strange thing is we will not say
What people ought to be;
Rarely in weak specifics nor
In generality
We feel to say these type of things
Is fatuous, presumptuous:
Or perhaps pollyanic
Or just dumb and Forrest Gumptuous
But this, I think, is a mistake.
We must have points of view:
Kids never get who they should be
From what
They shouldn’t
Do
To share is human:
Juxtaposition – Ethics & Aging
Even if you don’t believe
In good and evil
You believe in
What you want and don’t want
I find myself with
A more limited range of reactions
To stressful situations
As I get older
Going after what you want
Or preventing what you don’t want
Without weighing good or evil
Is, itself, a type of evil
For instance, waiting at a restaurant
Is almost intolerably frustrating
For me now
Which is, of course, absurd
And everybody knows this
It is behind our crusades against injustice
Or minor complaints about unfairness
All over the world
For I know that time spent with my family
Is time well-spent wherever it might be
But I feel my emotions ossifying
As aging works its process of freezing me in place
Justice is about maximizing good
And minimizing evil
While recognizing our inherent
Human limitations
To share is human:
Ontology Antropology Ethics Ontology
Thoughts drive feelings drive thoughts
What we think the world is
Shapes who we think we are
Shapes what think we should do
Shapes what the world is
