Is It Possible To Define Morality?

A most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.

Imagine if you had lived in England way back in the times when cottage industries were the glue that bound a community together.

Imagine the sense of calm, friendship, kinship, lots of give and take…I’m not suggesting a Utopia, just a gently-supportive, community lifestyle that worked.

In order to start this piece of writing I decided to first find out, the definition of morality. Here are three.

1. principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong, or good and bad behavior

2. a particular system of values and principles of conduct

3. the extent to which an action is right, or wrong

So what this really means to me, is that morality can only be judged by the situation we find ourselves in.

It’s a variable.

Some years ago I was teaching year four students (nine-year-olds, here in Australia). Our social science unit for term one was based around the Aboriginals (the name the indigenous people like to be known as, Aboriginal and not Aborigine).

The unit outline began with the arrival of The First Fleet from Britain, their task being to establish a penal colony in Van Diemen’s Land, later known as Australia.

My team met to plan the unit, to put our stamp on how it would be taught. This was a new unit for us and I had one question, that being, ‘Why are we starting with the First Fleet?’ (The units are set in the curriculum, but the reason behind each, not necessarily clear).

So with the question languishing in my mind, I went searching, and came across this unit.

As you can see there is much about facts, and statistics, but little about WHY there were so many convicts in the first place, especially since quite a number of them were children.

There was something missing.

I suggested to my colleagues that it would be prudent to preface the unit by going back to Britain, to a time when machinery would be elementary at best, and then to the advent of the industrial and agricultural revolutions and the resultant poverty. That would be a way of setting the stage for the study. I suggested that we set up some cottage industries within the classrooms, so that students could:

• feel the change
• react to the change
• worry about being out of work
• and feeding their families
• dealing with the fear

So, to cut a long story short, I got my way, managed to convince them that this might be a better way to start…one small victory!

Students love being immersed in action.

They learn through play.

To do this, we set up little cottage industries in class, with items that reflected each, real vegetables and fruit, real wool, leather, and threads.

We made weaving machines, somewhat crude by design, but they worked.

The students were assigned industries, and learned to barter for things their families needed that they couldn’t produce.

And then…a little bit of drama!

Suddenly the news was out.

We stopped everything.

The news was bad!

A Spinning Jenny had been invented.

Now I love a bit of drama. Shock was written all over my face as I conveyed the information to the students.

I wanted a reaction.

I got it! Gasps, the raising of eyebrows, the what-are-we-going-to-do expressions, tears, wringing of hands, despair.

With the first invention a particular group of cottage industries was suddenly out of work.

No work, no money, no food!

Eventually as more and more machines were made, people lost their incomes, families starved, and even more desperation set in.

More drama and the students were soon on board.

This was not a good situation.

And this is where the morality aspect crept into the situation.

(NOTE: It’s all about TIMING!)

‘What are we going to do?’ I demanded. ‘We could steal some of those pies I saw on a window ledge. What do you think?’

Student confusion was palpable.

‘What do you think?’ I asked. ‘I can’t let my children starve. What about you? Will you steal with me?

Not a show!

“Nobody?” I asked again.

No Show!

“But look at your children. They haven’t eaten for days. They’re crying with tummy pains. You have no job, no money, so how can I make you change your mind?”

Bear in mind, this was a Christian school...I mean, stealing????

So when the atmosphere was appropriate, and when I’d pierced through enough eyeballs to have me imprisoned for life, I stopped the theatrics and brought the students to the floor, and quietly said,

“I would! If my children were that hungry I’d steal for them.”

After which I folded my arms resolutely and waited.

“Because these are wealthy people…and they can make more pies…lots more,” I added.

Eventually the students opened up, and I heard things like:.

• Oh I was going to say that but…
• I thought you would be upset if I said…
• We were all thinking that, really!
• Well I suppose…

‘It’s easy enough to preach morality on a full belly.’

I loved facilitating this introduction because it was probably one of the most salutary lessons in morality perspectives that the students had experienced in their short lives.

So what actually is morality?

Is it something we are born with?

Or is it defined by our life experiences?

Is it a gut instinct?

Is it doing what feels right?

Morals are formed out of a person’s values. Values are the foundation of a person’s ability to judge between right and wrong. Morals build on this to form specific, context-driven rules that govern a person’s behavior. They’re formed from a person’s life experience and are subject to opinion.

For example, I’m opposed to murder. Most of us are.

But what about gossiping? You can do untold harm, serious harm, by gossiping, and yet people succumb to it all the time.

Here’s a little story for you.

A man goes to confession and says:

‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned.’

‘In what way my child?’

“I spread some bad gossip about my neighbor, and now I feel so bad about it.’

‘And you’ve come here to be forgiven?’

‘I have, Father.’

‘Well now, ‘he answered. ‘here’s what I’m tinking (he was an Irish priest!). Tell you what. Go home and get yourself half a dozen feather pillows. Cut them open, and spread the contents into the back garden. Then in the morning, go back and find each and every one of those feathers.’

‘But Father,’ he answered, ‘The wind is howling, and the feathers will be blown to Kingdom Come.’

‘Tis true, ‘tis true. ’Tis a timely bit of bad weather indeed, but in that there is a very big lesson. You know the gossip you shared…the gossip you are so ashamed of?’

‘Oh I do, Father.’

“That,’ the old priest said, ‘that too will have blown to Kingdom Come.’

So this is just a story, but if it were true, is the person worthy of forgiveness?

The truth is, that when we speak badly of people, we don’t think about it enough. Sure, our conscience pricks us, for a while, but we get over it.

But does the person whom you have defiled ever recover? Have you effectively killed that person?

Or perhaps you have killed yourself. Gossip merchants are not tolerated for long, and wide berths are used to deal with them.

Stealing…before we can determine how bad an action is, we first have to understand context.

Stealing because you are desperate, (as in the case of a desperate parent whose children will undoubtedly go hungry,) from someone who will be annoyed at worst, is still stealing, but it is mitigated when you understand context.

Defining morality will always be subjective. Often it will demand compassion.

At the end of the day, we are human, and we are endowed with conscience. As such:

‘Conformity is doing what everybody else is doing, regardless of what is right. Morality is doing what is right regardless of what everybody else is doing.’