MORAL COMPASS

Right or wrong, we all have an inner guidance system to steer our tendencies in one direction or another. We call it our moral compass.

I have been lucky throughout my life. I haven’t always headed true North on my moral compass but at least I was given a compass in working order.  Early on, in my exploration life, my compass was calibrated by a strong sense of family. Family extended through parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  I grew up in a rural ranching environment that implanted the directive that eating involved working together toward a common goal.

 

It taught me in order to have the bread, it was necessary to nurture the plants, to get the grain needed to make the flour to make the bread we eat.  I learned if you wanted to drink water from the cistern, you had to make the pump work.  I learned that nothing happens if you do nothing.  Anything that happens to a human child from birth until the age of reason is pure luck for that child.  The child has no choice of circumstance or of picking who will be tinkering with the compass.  Like I said, I was lucky.  My parents set up my compass to include a positive direction that defined both positive and negative direction.  In today’s society not everyone is that lucky.

Trekking through nature without a compass is tricky and dangerous without one that is working correctly.  Over time we have learned that compasses can be affected by other magnetic influences.  Our moral compass is no different.  Excepting the fact that mans’ moral compass is affected by so many more types of influencing factors.  One of the strongest influences on our compass is that of our peers. 

The small town and the times I grew up in gave me directional signs to follow.  I saw the directions my parents had shown me were similar as those of the community.  I learned that staying the course was acceptable and going off course had repercussions.  It was an early lesson in cause and effect, a law of universal truth.  Parents, extended family and community provided me with a high powered compass.  Cause and effect also come into play by dictating the necessity of maintenance.  Looking at the moral compass guiding our society, judging its working order by where we are headed, it is in need of repair. Unfortunately, it’s not just the society of our country but our peers in other nations who influence our magnetic direction. 

Like I said, my compass was not kept in good working order at times, but that goes for a different topic and a different time.

What happens to the child who is not as lucky with his fate?  What happens when the training wheels for the compass are skewed?  What happens when all the technicians for compass repair are on a sabbatical or just plain missing in action?  What happens to a young human when they are shoved into a world without any sense of direction or tools to get where they need to go?  What happens when the peers affecting their direction have faulty compasses as well?  The world society is losing the battle of direction.  We can’t possibly change direction by looking at the effects of the missing compass.  Without repairing the manufacturing process, the compass needed will never be accurate.

Psychology has long carried on the debate regarding the growth of the human being.  Are we a product of genetics, or of learned behaviors, an empty blackboard to be scribbled on by our environment?  If I were to venture my best guess it would be that all of the above would be the prize winning answer.  The genetics we can’t change, at least at this time in our evolution, but the blackboard can be scribbled upon with gibberish or clear cursive common sense right and wrong.  If those children are allowed to continue along life’s many paths without a proper working compass we are all affected. 

When one child is killed by a gang in Chicago, we are all diminished. We need to be honest about what screwed up someone’s compass for that to happen.   How does it happen that a child feels so helpless that they choose a peer group who believes breaking the law, not valuing the sanctity of life, and anger is a good direction for life?  Where are those who could repair and maintain those compasses?  We all have an obligation to guide and nurture our children.  Every time we fail to support the principles of self-determination, of responsibility for self, the sanctity of all life, we fail in our purpose for existence.  Every time we fail to provide our children the tools of education, safety, and solid community, we fail in our responsibility as a human being.  Every time we reinforce hatred and anger, we have failed humanity.  We are supposed to be better than that.

In our world today, the societal influence leading humanity into the desert is evident.  We see the effects of indoctrination, propaganda and ideology throughout our planet.  We see the effect of bastardizing the belief structure of Islam, the devastation caused by infused hatred, bigotry and prejudice.  The implied permission to murder those of different beliefs is granted under the skewed moral compass of indoctrination.  Indoctrination scribbled upon the blackboard of thousands of children.  Indoctrination affects us all. The compass we work with can only be corrected knowledge based in truth and fact.  We have a responsibility. I question our resolve to accept and act accordingly. 

Are we teaching the oneness of humanity or the divisiveness that is straining the working ability of an accurately tuned compass? 

.No matter what color of the human rainbow your neighbor is, there is just one rainbow.

God bless our nation and our world.  Give us discernment individually and collectively.

Love your neighbor.