The Changing Face Of Right And Wrong
by Miki Saxon
There is much talk these days about the importance of transparency and authenticity vs. concealment and dishonesty.
Unfortunately, the world isn’t black and white, but rather it’s done in shades of gray based on the beliefs of people in a particular society and at a particular time.
Of course, there are always people around to tell others what’s correct and what isn’t.
Most ‘social police’ start as one person with a specific set of forceful opinions and the skill to make them known to a wide audience. Like-minded people add their voices and build clout until they suddenly become then recognized arbiters on that topic.
This scenario applies equally across the board from politics to religion to business and every facet of people’s lives.
But being the [X] police doesn’t make them “right.”
Even most judgmental words such as, right, wrong, good, bad, etc., have meanings that have changed at various times in history and in the same times, but in different societies and cultures, or even the same ones.
- Slavery has been an acceptable part of dozens cultures for centuries, but most, not all, look at it now in horror.
- Universally murder has always been considered wrong, but what constitutes murder is ever changing.
The most each of us can ever state is our own opinion as I have done today—and then hope to find others who share it within the culture and society in which we live.
Image credit: sxc.hu
July 8th, 2012 at 1:17 am
[…] before I wrote this, Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin […]