Moral Shortcuts

 

Moral shortcuts.  Moral shortcuts are aphorisms that sum up states of goodness in only a few words. They are instant retorts, reports, or pronouncements given without explanation and analysis. They appeal to feeling good, hardly saying why, without content, and without depth. They are words meant to resonate in the mind.  They are weak, often vague aphorisms.  Moral shortcuts live a saltshaker to be spread to give flavor!   Beware of empty politicians telling us …

A.      It is the right thing to do.

B.      This is not who we are.

C.      We are on the right side of history.

D.     We have formed a commission to study the issue.

E.      We’re here to help you.

F.       They are friends, not competitors.

G.     Let us reimagine … .

Some buy every time, nodding in agreement. Some ask, “Is this the best you can do?”

Ala, morality is in the air, often attached to extreme measures, sort of an essential sweetener to a distasteful medicine. Really, they want to convince us, “It’s the morality, stupid!”

Raw meat (aka students) comes from the warmer ovens of high school, marches into the pressure cookers of college, and emerges having been infected by this new disease of instant morality. Then comes life, where conflicts and contradictions pummel these helpless children.

Recall …  “Fool me once, shame on me, but fool me twice, shame on you.” Damn, Abe Lincoln was right. You can fool some of the people all the time. Just sprinkle morality all over it.

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If you need the F-word to mane your point, you have no point to make.