I can honestly say I do not know what my morals are. I could barely define my own morals to write this article.
The simple way of thinking of morals is the battle between right and wrong. But who’s to say what’s right and wrong?
There’s the obvious right and wrong, the right and wrong we deal with daily: saying “please,” saying “thank you,” opening doors for others, and giving people the respect they deserve. But as I walk through the halls, I’m appalled to see that even these basic morals are being ignored right and left.
Respect is not given where due. Instead, I see students disrespect their teachers, their peers, their parents, and even themselves.
This is so stupid, this class sucks. Don’t you have anything better to do?
Really? You’re wearing that? Way to go for the “fat pig” look.
My mom took away my phone again. She’s such a b***!
I’m going to get so drunk I’ll pass out.
It makes no sense. You’d think somewhere, inside the mind, no matter what the issue at hand is, there would be an alarm going off, saying, “This is wrong. Stop.”
And why are so many people witnessing these extreme lapses in morality and doing nothing? How many times have we heard phrases like these and just continued with our day. I have. Without a doubt, on countless occasions, I’ve just ignored these things. And I can’t seem to figure out why.
Laziness? Do I just not want to be bothered with standing up for what I believe in? Or do I no longer know which morals I’m supposed to be believing in anymore?
And what happens when we’re willing to compromise ourselves on these small, blunt right or wrong matters? These are simply gateway indiscretions to things that open whole new doors to other indiscretions, other choices that still have right and wrong answers but whose “right” is smudged to the point where it’s not as black and white, cut and dry as “please” and “thank you.”
And when we stop to think about how all of this complete lack of respect will start to affect not only those around us, but ourselves also, it’s shocking. If we feed everyone around us disrespect or hate, then they really have no choice but to eventually assume that they aren’t worth the respect we’re refusing them. And then we question our society about why self esteem is so low. It’s a simple answer, in the end, we are a contributing factor to all of the self esteem issues this generation has.
And the sad thing is, none of us can pretend like we weren’t taught morals. Stories were drilled into our head-stories we still remember today -that taught us the basic morals to follow in life. Cinderella, Goldilocks, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Each story we know. And each story we ignore day after day when we refuse to do the right thing.
Our moral compasses should be saying something- anything- to make us doubt these decisions we constantly keep making. What we’re taught when we’re younger is to stand by everything that we believe in, no matter who stands behind us, but I seriously doubt many people know whether they believe in anything anymore. It’s considered “okay” and even “ethical” to dabble in drugs, alcohol, and sex, even if deep inside we can hear our still-alive consciences saying, “This is wrong and you know it.”
What changed?
Illustration by T. Alkemade