Stay in touch with Good

Stay in touch with Good

A black woman wearing a leopard print headscarf with mini braids on her chin and her head tilts back as she looks upwards.

As humans, we are psychologically porous. We accept the influences of ourselves from outside, including the words and actions of others. It is mainly good because it means we can learn from other humans.

But that also means that what’s going on around us can affect what’s normal and what’s right in a lesser way.

Peer pressure is one term used to describe that kind of impact. This is a term that suggests a conscious attempt by a group of individuals to do something, like a group of teens who pressure one of their members to try and smoke.

However, this pressure is also indirect. We witness people talking and acting in a certain way, and even if they don’t try to shake us, their actions can become the cultural norms we want to follow. We want to fit. This pressure comes from us, not from our peers.

A moral compass can change

But there are more subtle ways to conform to what surrounds us. Our sense of good and evil can change without even knowing about it. This is not because we want to fit, but because our moral compass responds to the magnetic field of what is happening around us.

This does not mean you want to fit. It simply means that we are used to our environment, and we change as changes in moral values, behaviors, and language in our society. And this can happen in a good way. In general, there was, for example, a transition to greater resistance. In 2005, gay marriage was rarely considered in the US. In 2015 it was legal everywhere, and more and more people accepted it. The more people accept something, the more likely they are to begin to accept it.

See:

On the negative side, if we see cruelty and dehumanization around us, we may begin to violate it. We get used to it. Please adjust it. We might believe that the story of this person being snatched on the street and deported to a hellish prison camp is a member of a dangerous gang, despite the fact that nothing but evidence or laughing evidence has been given to support this. The government says so, but there is no legal charge, so the accused person has no opportunity to protect himself from legal charges. Many of us may want to believe in the government. I think they must have a reason. Or maybe we don’t really care because we don’t think this will happen to us.

Shift occurs

I remember seeing moral change happening to the young man shortly after Margaret Thatcher was elected. We were both 18 years old and worked together for several months throughout the summer. We happened to bump into each other on the train platform and when the train arrived he rushed past the other travellers and boarded the ship.

After I caught up with him, he told me I had to grab what you want in life. I was shocked by his selfishness as I was raised to make sure that the elderly and women with children were sitting first. He had not been that way before, but the greedy Thatcherite spirit was rooted in his heart. He saw him on the train not as an opportunity to be civic to others, but as a way to show that he is a “winner” in the competition of life.

Connect our hearts to goodness

One way to resist less skilled is to explicitly root our lives with moral values. As a Buddhist, I have a list of ethical lessons that guide my actions. The simplest of these are five lessons. These are practices that we aim to consciously refrain from unmoving behavior. However, there are ethically skilled actions, but you can commit yourself. For convenience, I combine these:

I vow to refrain from harming living creatures and live with compassion. I accept refraining from taking in things that are not given and pledge to live with generosity.

Ethics as a free choice

These are not rules. There is no authority or punishment to make us obey them beyond the natural consequences of our actions. Each lesson includes things you choose to undertake for the benefit of yourself and others. Together they form a set of “training principles” (Sikkha-Pada), aiming to change ourselves through the decisions we make in life.

To keep these lessons oriented, many people chant them every day, often as preludes to sitting meditation practices.

I talk about this as “connecting our minds to good,” but this does not imply a lack of freedom. A ship drifts under the air and the tides are not free. Ships with sails and anchors are free.

Ethics as a mirror

But simply saying words doesn’t change us. We need to go back to examining our thoughts, words, and actions on measures of ethical principles that lessons remind us. For example, no matter how badly some politicians behave, it is unethical for us to hope that we will harm them. If we think that fake news items may help our cause politically, we should not spread it if it is not true. It is difficult to fight these temptations, but it is very difficult. It’s difficult to make us better people.

Buddha pointed to his son that moral reflections show us who we are, just as the mirror reflects our appearance. Lessons give us a way to see ourselves.

By clasping in the framework of ethical standards, we can prevent the moral powers around us from pulling our inner compass away from alignment. Sangharakshita explained this in terms of becoming a true individual rather than a group member. Group members feel that they are right because they are doing the same things that others do. The moral compass of a true individual is better insulated, and they can rely more on lessons.

Keep looking up

One phrase I have in mind when dealing with our current political situation is to “keep up.” This means staying in touch with your ideals. Aspire and continue working towards a better world. It also means not accepting erosion of the good and the right.

At this point, there is good and right to be exposed to serious US threats.

Legal defense rights are under attack. Support for the law and constitution is threatened. The government argues that it has the right to decide that it is not a crime of a crime without the need for trial. If they are illegal. The government says it can break the law with immunity and ignore the courts.

Our crumbling democracy

At an incredible speed, the entire democratic system is falling apart. Because there is no legitimate procedure, and there is no basis for a democratic society, especially without a corpus of habeas, which is the right to challenge your incarceration. All of us may disappear at any time. When it has meaning, we are terrifying and silence ourselves. In other words, our speeches are not free, as our speeches can put us in prison. Or, in my case, it could deport me. This article can cancel my green card if it attracts the attention of the Immigration Bureau. This happened to others.

And this is just the beginning. The track record of dictatorial leaders is well known. They will always persecute their political enemies, they will harass them, prisons, and even kill them. That’s the path we’re going and we’re moving down it much faster than most people were afraid.

I don’t know how far things will go before things turn around. This happens because humans aim for freedom. However, it remains to be seen how this reversal will be brought. Will there even be free and fair elections in the future? Also, I don’t know how long it will take.

Higher goal

In the meantime, we have to keep looking up. In other words, they do not work to return to freedom of speech, legitimate processes, the rule of law, and separation of power. Our democracy is always flawed, and American democracy was more flawed than most people, so we have been working for a world that is better than what we had for a better world than we had.

The law does not apply equally to all, regardless of social status, gender or race. It has always been more difficult for some people to vote than others. Not everyone’s votes are equal. Those in power often serve the interests of people who are richer and more powerful than their citizens. Our job is not only to return to the democratic norms we took for granted, but to create a better and more equitable democracy for ourselves and our descendants.

To that end, support your courage when you see it. When universities refuse to seek to reduce their academic freedom, celebrate and support them. We support courageous politicians. I praise them when librarians refuse to delete books containing LGBTQ themes and ethnic minority characters. Support the courageous publications and give them your attention and money. If someone gives you a TED talk and name a coup a coup, share this as an example of courage we should emulate. Someone appears at the demonstration and waving a banner showing resistance to the erosion of democratic norms, and they are grateful and grateful.

All of these are things we can respect and emulate.

Keep looking up. Things get better, but only if we remind ourselves and everyone else that they can.

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