The desire or search for integrity
It has always struck me as interesting that us humans have the need to validate our behavior as moral or ethical. We seem willing to go to great lengths to avoid having to face the fact that if our behavior is hurtful to another it is hurtful, at some level, to the entire human race. We often tell ourselves that hurting another is necessary to ensure that a person or group of people do not cause further harm to so called innocent people. Thus, we incarcerate many people in prisons in the United States. Prisons, for the most part, are designed to remind those who are incarcerated that they are there because they are being punished for being bad people and/or for committing criminal behavior. If punishment does not convince them to change their wicked behavior, then that proves that they are bad people and deserve to be punished. We may use the examples of the few who, in spite of the design of the system, are able to use the prison or jail experience as an opportunity to reassess their life and change the trajectory of it.
We avoid, on the whole, admitting that a large percentage of those labeled and incarcerated as criminals are mentally ill. To do so would be to admit that we have violated our own publicly professed ethics and that the simple truth is that punishment benefits no one.
If we are training soldiers to kill those who have labeled as our enemy we assigned euphemistic names for those one is going to kill: gooks, terrorists, the enemy, Japs, etc. The goal is to attempt to erase any potential acknowledgment that they are as humans as we. If describing a war battle we are careful justify our behavior as necessary and their behavior as cruel, sadistic, etc.
In the Nazi death camps, as Jay Lifton points out in his book The Nazi Doctors, a licensed medical doctor who had sworn to uphold the Hippocratic oath signed the death certificates of all who were gassed. This was an attempt to legitimize the killings.
One could interpret these and many other potential examples as an attempt of us humans to convince ourselves that our behavior is consistent with her stated or professed ethical or moral values.
There are a number of potential explanations for these seemingly futile or lightly masked attempts to convince ourselves and other that “good” humans have integrity or lead integrous lives. Some of the possible explanations are:
Once again, I am reminded that we humans are both very simple and very complicated beings. I think most of us are able to accept, at some level, that when we sit down with people from various political, religious, racial, cultural and ideological backgrounds and get to know each other as people we find we are more alike than different. We also find that most of us, although fearful, have the ability and the desire to work together to create a more just world. We know that there are many factors which affect how our brains experience and define reality. Those who are unable to experience some approximation of a shared reality and, thus unable to respect the basic rights of others may need to be in a protective environment but this does not make them bad or evil people.
I find it hopeful that most of us want to engage in behavior which makes moral or ethical sense. The more we face our fears and quit attempting to blame forces or people outside of ourselves for those fears the more we can find creative ways to work past them and “see” ourselves and each other more clearly as members of the same, larger tribe. Although the plethora of news coverage may make it seem as if we are becoming more violent the overall level of violence of humans against humans is steadily declining.
Written January 15, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
It has always struck me as interesting that us humans have the need to validate our behavior as moral or ethical. We seem willing to go to great lengths to avoid having to face the fact that if our behavior is hurtful to another it is hurtful, at some level, to the entire human race. We often tell ourselves that hurting another is necessary to ensure that a person or group of people do not cause further harm to so called innocent people. Thus, we incarcerate many people in prisons in the United States. Prisons, for the most part, are designed to remind those who are incarcerated that they are there because they are being punished for being bad people and/or for committing criminal behavior. If punishment does not convince them to change their wicked behavior, then that proves that they are bad people and deserve to be punished. We may use the examples of the few who, in spite of the design of the system, are able to use the prison or jail experience as an opportunity to reassess their life and change the trajectory of it.
We avoid, on the whole, admitting that a large percentage of those labeled and incarcerated as criminals are mentally ill. To do so would be to admit that we have violated our own publicly professed ethics and that the simple truth is that punishment benefits no one.
If we are training soldiers to kill those who have labeled as our enemy we assigned euphemistic names for those one is going to kill: gooks, terrorists, the enemy, Japs, etc. The goal is to attempt to erase any potential acknowledgment that they are as humans as we. If describing a war battle we are careful justify our behavior as necessary and their behavior as cruel, sadistic, etc.
In the Nazi death camps, as Jay Lifton points out in his book The Nazi Doctors, a licensed medical doctor who had sworn to uphold the Hippocratic oath signed the death certificates of all who were gassed. This was an attempt to legitimize the killings.
One could interpret these and many other potential examples as an attempt of us humans to convince ourselves that our behavior is consistent with her stated or professed ethical or moral values.
There are a number of potential explanations for these seemingly futile or lightly masked attempts to convince ourselves and other that “good” humans have integrity or lead integrous lives. Some of the possible explanations are:
- Most of us know at some level that we are connected to and dependent on each other.
- Most of us want to be able to say that we are good people and have integrity
- We honestly believe that some people are evil and not fully human.
- We honestly believe that we are doing only what is necessary to create a better world for ourselves and all we love and will love.
- We are fearful that if we are like those “bad or evil” people there is no hope for any of the human race or civilization as we know or define it today.
Once again, I am reminded that we humans are both very simple and very complicated beings. I think most of us are able to accept, at some level, that when we sit down with people from various political, religious, racial, cultural and ideological backgrounds and get to know each other as people we find we are more alike than different. We also find that most of us, although fearful, have the ability and the desire to work together to create a more just world. We know that there are many factors which affect how our brains experience and define reality. Those who are unable to experience some approximation of a shared reality and, thus unable to respect the basic rights of others may need to be in a protective environment but this does not make them bad or evil people.
I find it hopeful that most of us want to engage in behavior which makes moral or ethical sense. The more we face our fears and quit attempting to blame forces or people outside of ourselves for those fears the more we can find creative ways to work past them and “see” ourselves and each other more clearly as members of the same, larger tribe. Although the plethora of news coverage may make it seem as if we are becoming more violent the overall level of violence of humans against humans is steadily declining.
Written January 15, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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