Whatever Became Of The Moral Compass

Once again, Gentle Reader, Microsoft with their little stink bomb, also known as Windows 10, has wrecked my keyboard.  How do you like this for a question markÉ  I don`t like it either.  They really seem to not give a damn about how they impact us.  They are like sociopaths.  They have no moral compass.

I really wonder what became of the moral compass, the sense of right and wrong.  I was just listening to a current affairs program on the radio.  It was being argued persuasively that people end up in prison largely for being black, aboriginal, male and poor.  Change the race, gender and social status and you come up with a law-abiding citizen.  Someone who is never poor enough to want to steal or commit extortion or sell drugs or their body.  With a loving family that gave him lots of hugs and encouragement.  Who has always been surrounded by a complement of cheer-leading friends who are always there for him.  And also with lots of disposable income.

No one is expected to actually accept responsibility except for society and an unjust economic system that failed him.  While putting a billiard ball in a sock to crack someone`s skull open, none of these little thugs seem really interested in the right and wrong of what they are doing.  They have not developed or learned empathy.  They have not experienced real love.  And no one has really taught or shown them how to develop a moral compass.

I think that the retreat of religion from our lives has created for many of us a moral and ethical void.  This doesn`t justify the many abuses that have been perpetrated (and still are being perpetrated) in the name of religion.  And this isn`t to say that there is anything wrong with secularism.  There is an awful lot that is right about secularism.  But secularism does not provide us with a conscience.

Is this to say that religion is necessary in order to be and do good.  Not in the least.  What it does mean is that we have to rediscover, in our public discourse, morality and ethics.  Marginalized racially visible boys who have grown up in poverty have had very little opportunity to develop a conscience, much less anything else except for a festering hatred for authority.  Our ability to be moral is the outcome of our social and family and community interactions.  We learn as we interact, but only if it is healthy interacting in nurturing environments.

I still think that even the most hardened criminal has a sense of right and wrong.  For whatever reason they have abdicated from caring there are going to be many good reasons, and a few bad ones as well and in the final analysis we are going to find it very difficult to pin blame on any one party.