Where is the clarity of good and bad as guideposts?

~ our lack of moral clarity

Our social condition at this time is that we have lost the clarity of good and bad. This is most unique. I do not believe it has occurred before. I believe this is unhealthy. It just isn't good. One may no longer easily distingush persons into the seemingly obvious groups, between persons labelled good and those who seem to be no good. So, there was a crude but comprehensive understanding of good and bad. There used to be the ability to categorize like that and it was not a bad thing. Now we cannot seem to do so. I think there is something basic here; a society needs this ability. After all there are good things and bad things. In a society that has culturally accepted that, if some things are not good, we say, "oh, that is a shame," but the fact that the thing may not be okay is actually still okay because clarity about that is good for the community. Such "bad" things exist in the people’s mind; there are also clear expressions of what a people take pride in. One set of persons lives in the light; one set of persons lives in the dark. Of course, there are different things that get slotted into these good vs. bad positions depending on the particular spectrum. We are a diverse society. Any historical culture, anywhere, has to have a system of putting things into slots. Would you like to be a "nigger"? Well maybe that's your fate. But in any case the society needs to have a class of things that are not so good and also other things that are clean and neat and clearly good or we can say: kosher, all-American. That might seem very unsophisticated when you put it like that but by pretending to be "above" all of it, we just destroy society. You should try to recognize that there are things that are worse than these simplistic distinctions, e.g. social chaos. Such "primitive" cultural practices as labels for good and bad are part of what allows people to live. What we need is that condition: the normal human condition.

So what I am arguing is that the normal condition is a world that has both the good ones and more suspect persons: maybe they are called "badasses." If persons lose their ability to make such distinctions, you will have even more problems. It is a problem because the vast majority of people in the society need the touchstones. It is a normal thing. And it is not good to lose this. Keep it simple!

Thus, our time has a very peculiar vexation, one that has not been experienced before in history. We are trying to live in an untenable condition. What is untenable has to eventually fall. We are trying to live without the feeling of having something to support or not to support. We need that good and bad. This is the case even if we cannot definite it precisely. To be more precise, it would be a system where there are things that are seen by all members of society as being definitely good. On the other hand, there are other things that will be seen as being of some other category: that which is "not so good." This is completely normal for all society and it is a better system. There is no point in discarding it. What would the alternative be? Some sort of ideology? So I would suggest these are bad times, when no one can get a handle things. And this is due to not having clarity on the matter of who is good and thus should be supported, and who we can feel safe rejecting. Whom are we feeling is clearly good, and whom are those who are bad? Where is the clear definition? This is different for different people. It is flexible. But now we have come to this situation where there are no longer any cultural values. Little boys are claiming to be girls, and visa-versa.

The old system of "goods and bads" is better; it is just more workable. And we have no alternative. If you do not have such a system your society has to work it out somehow. Would we revert to a system of kings and subjects? Would we fall into totalitarianism? So, even a very crude system that has values and is able to label persons as good and bad is better. I believe that, in that sort of system, we would be better able to support a workable sort of equal rights. But it does not support an overly ideal equality. That sort of regime is an impossible system where we have lost our ability to know right and wrong good and bad, what to reject and what to support.

These distinctions are just kind of normal. Even when we say, out of habit, that "all men are equal" we may fall into this meaningless state where it is impossible to get a grip, since we just do not know what good and bad are. Now we have done that, and it is a big mistake. Soon we are not seeing any differences at all and how is a society supposed to live like that? This is not tenable.

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