Right and Wrong are Real

 

Chapter 5

Right and Wrong are Real 

If "Truth with a capital "T" really exists in both a physical and metaphysical sense, then we are left with a similarly corresponding reality about right and wrong. In other words, they are just as real, and we must spell "Right" with a capital "R."

This brings us to Law #2 of the SAL Theory, which states that: There is a categorical and universal distinction and division between RIGHT and wrong.  

LAW #2

There is a categorical and universal distinction and

division between RIGHT and wrong.

Years ago, Robert Fulghum wrote a bestselling book entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things.

According to Fulghum:

"All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned: Share ... Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. ... [Live] the Golden Rule." (1)

While Fulghum may be oversimplifying things a bit, his point remains lucid and cogent in a world where so many people—including many in the upper echelons of business, education, and politics—struggle with a variety of basic, behavioral mores that have historically been embraced by civilized man. While not everyone receives the same quality of moral training, I don't think it would be exaggerating to say that most people gain at least some semblance of right and wrong by the time they're five years old.

All too often, the problem is not that we don't know right from wrong; the problem is we fail to choose right over wrong. A similar problem manifests itself through intellectual and social efforts aimed at rationalizing away and otherwise justifying wrong thoughts, speech, and behavior. Imagine how much freer, stronger, and more virtuous our nation and world would be if collective humanity spent as much time, effort, and money trying harder to do what is right than in attempting to conceal, justify, and rationalize what is wrong!

You don't have to belong to a certain culture, ideology, philosophy, political persuasion, or religion to comprehend the fundamental difference between right and wrong choices in life. You merely have to understand the variables that lead to long-term health, happiness, Existential Growth, and inner peace. 

On the flip side, you must likewise understand the variables that lead to long-term sickness, misery, and existential atrophy. 

What then is the difference between right and wrong? 

The answers to this question are found in Corollary 2.1 and 2.2., as follows:

COROLLARY 2.1

Right choices consist of thoughts, speech, and actions that lead to the long-term health,

happiness, Existential Growth, and inner peace of oneself and all people

(and other living things) impacted or influenced thereby.

COROLLARY 2.2

Wrong choices consist of thoughts, speech, and actions that lead to the

long-term sickness, misery, existential atrophy, and turmoil of oneself

and all people (and other living things) impacted or influenced thereby.

Like deteriorating fruit, our moral sense can likewise
atrophy and rot over time if not carefully preserved.

Existential atrophy is the opposite of Existential Growth. It is defined as: the deterioration and regression of one's holistic potential. 

Existential Atrophy

The deterioration and regression of one's holistic growth and moral progress.  

If right and wrong are real, how are we to differentiate between these two opposing forces? 

One answer to this question is to listen, and then hearken to, the edicts of your conscience. This leads us to law number three, as follows:

LAW 3

All human beings enter the world with a conscience, which prompts them to think,

say, and do what is right, and to avoid thinking about, saying, or doing what is wrong.

At Freedom Focused, we believe that ALL human beings are born with a conscience that naturally prompts them toward good and away from evil. We further hold that for most human beings, one's conscience is at least marginally operative from a very young age. Whether or not your conscience continues to operate soundly over the course of one's life depends entirely on the degree to which YOU choose to listen to and heed its metaphysical guidance.

Regardless of the imagery you employ in conceptualizing this key truth (e.g. Jiminy Cricket, an angel and devil on your shoulder, a light within, True North [2], etc.), the existence of the human conscience is an incontrovertible truth that we believe all honest and reasonable persons would not only acknowledge, but have in fact experienced to varying degrees throughout their lives.

In the eloquent words of the famous 18th Century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant: two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe ... the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. 

"Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe:

The starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."

—Immanuel Kant

Just because YOU entered this world with a conscience does not guarantee you will always be directed by its guiding light. Just as a muscle will atrophy with disuse, so the light of conscience dims with disregard. Thus, we arrive at Corollary 3.1, as follows:

COROLLARY 3.1

Your conscience is sharpened or dulled over time in direct

proportion to the adherence, or lack thereof, that you grant it.

Our nation and world have too many dulled consciences. The time has come to dust off the sharpening wheel and let the sparks begin to fly. Just as importantly, the day has arrived to begin a widespread pedagogy of conscience cultivation in our nations, states, communities, organizations, schools, and families—beginning in the individual lives of me and YOU.  

In Your Journal

• In your experience, how does your conscience communicate with you?

• During what time of your life was your conscience most sensitive? Why do you suppose this was?

• During what time of your life was your conscience most dulled? Why do you suppose this was?

• What single action or habit of yours currently sharpens your conscience more than any other?

• What single action, inaction, or habit of yours currently dulls your conscience more than any other?

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

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Chapter 4 Notes

1.  Fulghum, R. (1986). All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things. New York, NY: Ivy Books. Pages 4-5.

2.  Covey, S. R. (2004). The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. New York, NY: Free Press. Page 53.