Not good enough

Edmund Burke said- "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that the good do nothing."

I think this pithy dictum should be emblazoned on every flag, on the currency of every free country. But I do not even see it on t-shirts! It is a sad statement on how we think.

Have you noticed how the most self-righteous people are those who do nothing good? I do not mean that they commit crimes, or even that they get in someone's way. They just do nothing! The justification for their inaction is that they are not being bad.

However, simply not being bad does not make a person good. It is one of those unchanging laws of nature. To be good, one has to do good. Period. Sitting smugly on the sidelines of life, and patting ourselves on the back because we are not adding to the evil in the unfolding drama is just not right. More pertinently, our very lack of involvement is engendering the very injustices we repudiate.

I was watching a programme on Science channel and I was fascinated by what they said about conditions on other solar planets. If we were on a planet with no atmosphere, it would be as if we were breathing in poison. There not being any breathable air has exactly the same effect as there being poisonous air. We do not have to defile the air; just removing the oxygen is enough to kill. When there is no pressure in the air, our blood would boil as if it was being heated. A very high temperature can do that certainly, but it is the same if we just remove the pressure that is required for survival! Just a simple dearth of the required beneficial things is more deleterious than we can comprehend.

One cannot set up a community of nice people with nice building and lovely parks and expect the status quo to be maintained forever. All entities, physical or biological, must obey the laws of physics. To keep things in place, constant input of work is required. So also in the more crucial world of emotions. You need to keep feeding positive energy for anything to remain wholesome. Brain, soul, imagination, intellect- every human component needs to be nourished to bloom in its most marvelous manifestation. And the essential pabulum is basic good, honest virtue.

If we are not moving ahead, we are definitely not progressing. But stagnation is not only 'staying put', it itself is a regression. Just as knowledge feeds on itself to grow, so does good. Stopping learning is like walking backward. And not actively making the effort to help, to assuage, to comfort, hinders a furthering of civilization. And if civilization is not being furthered, it deteriorates. Entire civilizations have disappeared because powerful rulers have rested on their laurels.The physical body dies without nutritious food. The spirit dies without hope and love. The mind rots without constant use and learning. Society will collapse if it is not continually furnished with selfless acts of kindness and charity. All of us- the good and kind, the open minded and responsible, all we need to do to let the vile and corrupt take control of our world is, well, just nothing.

Universal Morality

The latest research on our mind absolutely fascinates me. According to an article in the Futurist, "The Mechanics of Good and Evil", morality is a cognitive process. The article states that everyone has an in-built moral grammar. One would expect morality to be learned from parents and society as we grow and learn. One would also expect it to be dependent on cultural background. But research shows that large part of our moral makeup, called moral grammar, is already present at birth!! It is only tweaked and perfected as we experience life. And everyone judges everything by their own grammatical rules. Every moral code is entirely individual and, - this is intriguing - unintelligible to someone with a different setup. My set of personal principles will seem like a silly hash of unrefined ideas to anyone who does not have a similar line of thinking. That is absolutely amazing! Actually, it makes me understand why I find the hijab so ridiculous - and the people who cover find my opinion so, well.... shocking, to put it mildly. For those predisposed to whatever it is that makes themselves, and others, uncomfortable, it is untenable how I can be a proper Muslim without having my head covered by something else other than hair (You can read right away how unreasonable I find this line of thinking because it does not match MY moral grammar).

I think it also explains why memory differs from person to person. People remember things differently because their moral wiring probably processes it differently.It also explains why some people are indifferent, and some so involved, to events around the world that are not a part of our immediate landscape. It is our personal grammar, moral or otherwise, that defines how we look at things. It determines how we react to situations.And that just makes it all the more imperative that we do NOT judge others by what we think is right.

I think it just means that all things are right as long as it hurts no one else. And conversely, if you hurt someone - by words or actions- it is WRONG , however right it seems in your personal grammar. That is basic morality. And being so basic, it is noble and unassailable. As long as your actions do not affect someone adversely, no one has the right to tell you NOT to do it. So, my asking someone not to wear a hijab is as oppressive as someone asking me to put it on!

Obviously hitting someone is absolutely wrong - WHATEVER your motivation - justified or not -because the justification comes from YOUR grammar. Universal morality would dictate that you cannot hurt someone else. PERIOD. You find a way to right the wrong you feel without infringing on the other's personal space. It may be offensive to me if someone in front of you folds their legs onto their chair,but he is not breaking the universal morality decree. My pique is because of my personal grammar - and I will have to let it go.

It is not difficult to see how specific and unique personal moral grammar is. It also emphasizes how encompassing and elemental universal morality should be. That makes it easy to know when you need to react, because universal morality is simply doing the right thing for others. It is simply a 'do not hurt' principle. And that should never be negotiable. Whether it fits in your moral code or (horror of horrors) not - this morality is incumbent on every person on the planet. You can walk swinging your arms all through the hallway, as long as no one is going to get hit.

And if we just get it right - the world will be a better place.