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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
Personal Morality -- Should It Be Dictated?
Title's a little scary, isn't it? People don't
like that word "dictated." Don't really like "morality" either, in general.
The former brings up images of strange European heads of state, standing on
balconies and shouting and gesticulating at a mass of people to frightened to do
anything but cheer. The latter calls to mind Catholic school nuns with rulers,
or little old lady Sunday school teachers, or presidents who don't know what
doesn't belong in the U.S. Constitution... Oh darn. How on earth did that slip
in there?
Unfortunately, "morality" does not bring up any image associated with Asatru. The Nine Noble Virtues may be a great code to live by, but they are not a moral code -- or at least, not a definite one. Not like the Ten Commandments, in a "Thou shalt not" sense.
"So what," you ask me. "You yourself, when comparing the Nine Noble Virtues with the Ten Commandments skipped right over the obvious difference (that there are 10 Commandments and only 9 Virtues; sorry; that's been bothering me ever since), and said that we don't need a strict moral law if we follow the virtues, because they extoll right action." Yep. You're absolutely right. I said that. If you look inside the NNV, you find a very strict code of moral behavior.
So why aren't we more moral? If we follow the NNV, and they are the basis of right action, then why do we have prison Asatru? Will an Asatru cheat on his taxes? Absolutely. Heathens cheat on their spouses, call in sick when they're not, and do all the generally immoral things that are performed in everyday society, by those who have no concept of honor.
We should be better than that. We should be better than THEM! Why aren't we?
I can think of quite a few reasons for this (Oh boy. You can smell the list coming, can't you? Yep. Definitely list time).
1. The type of people we're attracting. These are people who broke away from a religion, probably not very recently. They're not used to having any moral compass except their own sense of right and wrong. If that was based in their previous religion, then it might have been broken during the transition.
Well, what can we do about that? Stop allowing newcomers? Shut down the religion like the Shakers and gradually die out? Well, no. We need to make it clear from the start that heathenry is about morality. We're not a "If you don't hurt anyone, do what you want" religion. Maybe it works fine in other contexts. It doesn't work for us.
2. Unbalanced moral halves. OK, this is a great description. Morality has two parts. First, there's the part that is dependent on and reflective of our self-esteem. This is the morality of "I don't do this because I want to be able to look in the mirror without flinching." Then there's the morality that is dependent on and reflective of the view of society, as in "I don't do this because I want to be able to hold my head up in the community."
Nothing earth-shattering so far. Here's the bit: There's a little system of checks and balances between the two. Here's an example. I can cheat on my taxes. I would feel no real personal guilt over this, because I feel that I paid enough to the government last year to make up for not paying as much this year. However, I know that I might get caught and have to go to court, pay a large fine, and face jail time. The amount of face I would lose in the community keeps me from doing something that would not affect my self-esteem. Or the other way around: I witness a crime of some sort. Few people in society would blame me if I just went on my way and did nothing. However, because I will feel guilt and be unable to face myself, I go to the police and report what I saw.
So what could cause this system to become unbalanced? Someone with extremely low self-esteem is hardly going to be made to feel worse about himself no matter what he does. Or, the person might have such a high opinion of himself that he can justify anything he does in his own mind. In that case, they don't have the internal check on their actions. On the other hand, someone might be insensitive to the pressure of society, or might be living in a community with a depressed moral standard. This prevents them having the external check on their actions.
What can we do about this? Well, firstly, we have to foster within heathens honesty with themselves. Neither low nor high self-esteem is desirable; but an accurate picture of one's self and one's actions. Through this, the internal moral compass becomes balanced. If we are required by circumstances to live in areas with low moral standards, then we must be very careful to keep our standards high in spite of those around us. The heathen in this situation must set himself morally above those around him, and must consider how those people will crow about it if he sinks to their level. Sounds snobby? Well, yeah, it is. It's also necessary.
3. Unspecified morals. The NNV are nine words. Without common concepts to go with those words, they are nothing but nine words. Honor, for example. To live my life with honor, I have to come up with what it means to live honorably. To be truthful, I must establish what the truth is. Is lying by omission acceptable? There's an old song from the musical "Kiss Me Kate," the chorus of which is "But I'm always true to you darling in my fashion / Yes I'm always true to you darling in my way." Is that good enough? Probably not.
We need some kind of concensus. All heathenry hasn't even decided on the value of the Nine Noble Virtues yet. Perhaps we should skip the easy stuff and go straight back to the Havamal, the closest thing we have to a set moral code. At least then there would be less room for interpretaion, except for the original interpretation into English.
4. Acceptance within heathenry of moral standards contraindicated by the Lore. We as heathens are a fairly tolerant bunch. We accept a lot of behavior that is not necessarily acceptable according to the Lore. Part of the problem is the idea of using the Sagas as a moral compass. The Sagas are in many ways like soap operas. While you might fantasize about living a life like "Days of Our Lives," from a moral point of view, one must realize that it isn't a good idea. Same with the Sagas. They're spicy, and although based on true stories, have of course been made more interesting -- the bad guys are badder and the good guys are gooder. This is just one way in which we become accustomed to accepting things outside our morality.
In order to prevent this, we have to put our feet down. State outright "I'm afraid that behavior is unacceptable to me because ______." Yeah, I know. Sounds prudish. You can find other ways to make it clear, of course.
As one of the celebrated professors at my college once stated, "We live in a world." (He was actually going to go on, but paused just a little too long for effect, allowing a large number of people, myself included, the time required to begin applauding his statement.) I would alter that slightly and expand upon it. We live in a country. *applause* that is founded on Christian morality. Our laws are based in Christian morality. Therefore... remember that system of checks and balances in that idea I liked so much? Yeah. This has a profound effect on that.
Because the morals of our society are Christian-based (although, it must be noted, those morals are slipping), the external check on our moral system is at their level of morality. Our inner moral compass, however, should be heathen (That's a process, of course, and not something that is arrived at overnight). Therefore, based on the above system, whichever moral code is stricter in a given situation should be the one that wins out.
Note the use of the word "should." We have people within heathenry who are here because they are rebelling against society's moral standards. At the same time, they are not taking on a heathen moral code. Thus there is little they are unwilling to do because of moral objections. There may be other factors which prevent certain actions (such as fear of punishment), but no inner compass or outer pressures guide them.
This is what we have to stop. We must impress on newbies and members alike that we are still a part of society, and that we have our own morals and values as well. I don't know how else to say this.
Morality is personal, but it must be dictated so that it can become personal. This is something we are currently missing, and that is partially because of a tendency to accept anyone who wants to become Asatru. We have to be selective. Otherwise we are just a whitened sepulchre.
Feel free to submit comments calling me a prude if you wish. This isn't an easy subject, of course, and this is just one opinion on a few facets of it. If it makes you think, it's done its job. If you agree with it, then it's gone beyond its job.
Unfortunately, "morality" does not bring up any image associated with Asatru. The Nine Noble Virtues may be a great code to live by, but they are not a moral code -- or at least, not a definite one. Not like the Ten Commandments, in a "Thou shalt not" sense.
"So what," you ask me. "You yourself, when comparing the Nine Noble Virtues with the Ten Commandments skipped right over the obvious difference (that there are 10 Commandments and only 9 Virtues; sorry; that's been bothering me ever since), and said that we don't need a strict moral law if we follow the virtues, because they extoll right action." Yep. You're absolutely right. I said that. If you look inside the NNV, you find a very strict code of moral behavior.
So why aren't we more moral? If we follow the NNV, and they are the basis of right action, then why do we have prison Asatru? Will an Asatru cheat on his taxes? Absolutely. Heathens cheat on their spouses, call in sick when they're not, and do all the generally immoral things that are performed in everyday society, by those who have no concept of honor.
We should be better than that. We should be better than THEM! Why aren't we?
I can think of quite a few reasons for this (Oh boy. You can smell the list coming, can't you? Yep. Definitely list time).
1. The type of people we're attracting. These are people who broke away from a religion, probably not very recently. They're not used to having any moral compass except their own sense of right and wrong. If that was based in their previous religion, then it might have been broken during the transition.
Well, what can we do about that? Stop allowing newcomers? Shut down the religion like the Shakers and gradually die out? Well, no. We need to make it clear from the start that heathenry is about morality. We're not a "If you don't hurt anyone, do what you want" religion. Maybe it works fine in other contexts. It doesn't work for us.
2. Unbalanced moral halves. OK, this is a great description. Morality has two parts. First, there's the part that is dependent on and reflective of our self-esteem. This is the morality of "I don't do this because I want to be able to look in the mirror without flinching." Then there's the morality that is dependent on and reflective of the view of society, as in "I don't do this because I want to be able to hold my head up in the community."
Nothing earth-shattering so far. Here's the bit: There's a little system of checks and balances between the two. Here's an example. I can cheat on my taxes. I would feel no real personal guilt over this, because I feel that I paid enough to the government last year to make up for not paying as much this year. However, I know that I might get caught and have to go to court, pay a large fine, and face jail time. The amount of face I would lose in the community keeps me from doing something that would not affect my self-esteem. Or the other way around: I witness a crime of some sort. Few people in society would blame me if I just went on my way and did nothing. However, because I will feel guilt and be unable to face myself, I go to the police and report what I saw.
So what could cause this system to become unbalanced? Someone with extremely low self-esteem is hardly going to be made to feel worse about himself no matter what he does. Or, the person might have such a high opinion of himself that he can justify anything he does in his own mind. In that case, they don't have the internal check on their actions. On the other hand, someone might be insensitive to the pressure of society, or might be living in a community with a depressed moral standard. This prevents them having the external check on their actions.
What can we do about this? Well, firstly, we have to foster within heathens honesty with themselves. Neither low nor high self-esteem is desirable; but an accurate picture of one's self and one's actions. Through this, the internal moral compass becomes balanced. If we are required by circumstances to live in areas with low moral standards, then we must be very careful to keep our standards high in spite of those around us. The heathen in this situation must set himself morally above those around him, and must consider how those people will crow about it if he sinks to their level. Sounds snobby? Well, yeah, it is. It's also necessary.
3. Unspecified morals. The NNV are nine words. Without common concepts to go with those words, they are nothing but nine words. Honor, for example. To live my life with honor, I have to come up with what it means to live honorably. To be truthful, I must establish what the truth is. Is lying by omission acceptable? There's an old song from the musical "Kiss Me Kate," the chorus of which is "But I'm always true to you darling in my fashion / Yes I'm always true to you darling in my way." Is that good enough? Probably not.
We need some kind of concensus. All heathenry hasn't even decided on the value of the Nine Noble Virtues yet. Perhaps we should skip the easy stuff and go straight back to the Havamal, the closest thing we have to a set moral code. At least then there would be less room for interpretaion, except for the original interpretation into English.
4. Acceptance within heathenry of moral standards contraindicated by the Lore. We as heathens are a fairly tolerant bunch. We accept a lot of behavior that is not necessarily acceptable according to the Lore. Part of the problem is the idea of using the Sagas as a moral compass. The Sagas are in many ways like soap operas. While you might fantasize about living a life like "Days of Our Lives," from a moral point of view, one must realize that it isn't a good idea. Same with the Sagas. They're spicy, and although based on true stories, have of course been made more interesting -- the bad guys are badder and the good guys are gooder. This is just one way in which we become accustomed to accepting things outside our morality.
In order to prevent this, we have to put our feet down. State outright "I'm afraid that behavior is unacceptable to me because ______." Yeah, I know. Sounds prudish. You can find other ways to make it clear, of course.
As one of the celebrated professors at my college once stated, "We live in a world." (He was actually going to go on, but paused just a little too long for effect, allowing a large number of people, myself included, the time required to begin applauding his statement.) I would alter that slightly and expand upon it. We live in a country. *applause* that is founded on Christian morality. Our laws are based in Christian morality. Therefore... remember that system of checks and balances in that idea I liked so much? Yeah. This has a profound effect on that.
Because the morals of our society are Christian-based (although, it must be noted, those morals are slipping), the external check on our moral system is at their level of morality. Our inner moral compass, however, should be heathen (That's a process, of course, and not something that is arrived at overnight). Therefore, based on the above system, whichever moral code is stricter in a given situation should be the one that wins out.
Note the use of the word "should." We have people within heathenry who are here because they are rebelling against society's moral standards. At the same time, they are not taking on a heathen moral code. Thus there is little they are unwilling to do because of moral objections. There may be other factors which prevent certain actions (such as fear of punishment), but no inner compass or outer pressures guide them.
This is what we have to stop. We must impress on newbies and members alike that we are still a part of society, and that we have our own morals and values as well. I don't know how else to say this.
Morality is personal, but it must be dictated so that it can become personal. This is something we are currently missing, and that is partially because of a tendency to accept anyone who wants to become Asatru. We have to be selective. Otherwise we are just a whitened sepulchre.
Feel free to submit comments calling me a prude if you wish. This isn't an easy subject, of course, and this is just one opinion on a few facets of it. If it makes you think, it's done its job. If you agree with it, then it's gone beyond its job.
Posted: Wed - April 7, 2004 at 04:29 PM