Moral Choice or Simply Luck

I recently read an article on Aeon.co by Robert J. Hartman, called Moral Luck. The article reminded me of many similar situations we all have faced in life and also most recently that of a very dear hard working friend. It taught me again that sometimes as Leaders the best decision we can make is to stay hidden under wing, that a Giant of wrongdoing can only be defeated or brought to real justice with the element of surprise. It got me asking the hard hitting questions again about the philosophy of life and the choices we make, how we want to live our live.

Is it just in Defence of luck or crisis of meaning, that like the sway of a rudderless boat, the moral and ethical choices that swell to the surface become our realm of existence. To observe, who will view in confidence and who will display an attitude of cynicism? The alternating struggle of those searching the answers: will it promote an ethos of higher civic good or for those saying: “if i can get away with it, why not”.

The Driving dynamic in considering the motivation behind why people “do what they do”, is attributed to a string of theories which result in the weight of ONE’S luck? How much does it prick at the conscience of every human being, to have something higher than their self to obey. Shouldn’t we be quickly reminded here that life presents us with a moral and ethical code.

In effect, our entry into life is taken as an oath, to know the true and good, of which we are compelled to do, to respect cultures and differences, the search to find the soul of things – the “anima mundi”, or to bear our own blueprint from the genes inherited and the environment lived in.

what of your ‘preconceived ideas’ will be challenged and perhaps threatened by this read i dare say, with intrigue and wonder i pose the question to you today. Do you fight the injustices or sell your soul to the devil, do you move into a level of conformity like most others would agree is the ‘norm’. Do you anaesthetise the ego and drown your pain or face your demons and provoke an opposite reaction that sees triumphant gain from a feeling that speaks of Good. At the very least, the article is a welcome back to a philosophy that no longer just belongs in our lecture halls.

For any University of the mind that must weigh “a bad person from a person(s) that did a bad thing”, there requires a function of 1/ Knowledge advancement 2/ a learning of the methods of thinking 3/ Clarity and consistency of the value of thought.

It is a story that comes back to the the goal of human endeavour – how as individuals to we choose to water the roots of our well-being.