Moral Evolution
 

In the great evolution of our species, there have been some remarkable stumbles. But one thinks sometimes that we have gotten our moral act together and that we are on the right path. Of course that’s really more like squinting through rose-colored glasses in a coal mine at night.

What’s particular offensive about the moral hypocrisy of today’s world are the religious fanatics who claim to be one with god while committing the greatest offenses known to mankind. You might think the Islamic suicide bombers are the worst, but really it’s the people who get them their explosives, and then send them off to slaughter innocents.

Christians don’t seem as committed to their god, not recently, though lord knows that for centuries they dispatched their enemies and heretics with wild abandon. Hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of non-believers, witches, and those just in the way were murdered with solemn glee.

It’s not just over-zealous religious types who act in brutally degenerate ways. The super-rich are about as perverse as they come. Many a bottom line is drawn in a deep pool of despair, and blood if necessary. The Lehman bosses were testifying on Capitol Hill, explaining how it was everyone else’s fault that they went under. We also learned that while they were pleading for a taxpayer bailout they were arranging millions of dollars in special exit payments to their executives.

And of course, the least moral as a class are today’s politicians. There has always been ambition in politics, along with inflating one’s importance and clawing at the opponent’s record, but never has there been such a fanatical disregard for the truth.

It’s more than unfortunate that we don’t have more effective moral leadership in our world. It shreds the very notion that we have evolved from apes, or at least that we have gotten very far.

 

Home

©2008 SetonnoteS

.