Ialdabaoth
Posts: 1073
Joined: 5/4/2008 From: Tempe, AZ Status: offline
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Here's a different take on what you're asking, that hopefully will make sense: It's "wrong" to do the "right" thing when others are not being honest about what the "right" thing actually is. See, there is no objective "right" or "wrong" thing; it's just the fickle whim of the crowd. And the crowd generally ingrains within us certain moral 'rules of thumb' that are supposed to give us some idea about how they're going to judge our actions while we're still contemplating them. The problem is, there's a bunch more to "ethics" than what's actually stated. A lot of times, people want you to lie to them; they just don't want it brought to anyone's attention that that's what you're doing. A lot of times, people want you to be a colossal prick to someone who doesn't deserve it; they just don't want anyone to notice that they wanted you to do it. And sometimes, people just want you to be wrong, so no matter what you do it'll be judged as the "wrong" thing. And conversely, sometimes people explicitly want you to do something that you've always been told is the "wrong" thing, and will tell you it was the "right thing to do" when you did it - even while saying that it's a horrible thing to do in general. This has nothing to do with morality, but of course everyone will go on and on about their moral "justifications". Just understand what people want better than they understand themselves, and you can always stay one step ahead of them - especially if you learn to hold your cards close enough to your chest that no one knows you're playing their consciences like a fiddle. You can spend your whole life trying to figure out the "morality" game, but ultimately it just comes down to primate power politics. And the best way to always be seen as doing the "right" thing is to be charismatic, be successfully manipulative, and be powerful enough to scare off anyone that might try to call you on your shit. And if you can't pull those off, then you're left with blind luck to determine whether you're going to be judged as a "good" or "bad" person. Good luck.
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