A couple weeks ago a good friend of mine sent me a text message, which resulted in a healthy e-mail exchange that's been going on ever since - I'll post that later.
On the ride home from work my cell phone goes of (TEXT MESSAGE), and I get the following:
"Do you have a set of standards that you consciously live by?"
Yeah, some friend huh? Of course, he knew I'd give it some serious thought, and I have. On the face of it, it seems like a rather simple -if not obvious - question. However it soon became obvious that the catch word (perhaps not intended) which would throw me for a loop was, "consciously".
For now, I'm just going to throw this out there and let it gel.
I think our consciousness is propelled by our subconscious mind most of the time, but that does not necessarily mean we execute the will of the subconscious.
ReplyDeleteIn our conscious mind I think that we think make conscious decisions, but so much of how we are wire is reactive. Also, while standards are a something we try to maintain, they are ideals more often than not as we often fall short or exceed them, based on situation and our disposition at the time.
So, to conclude, I believe that we have a general concept of personal standard ideals, but these ideals are more like weather forecasts than etched in stone.
I think that's pretty well put.
ReplyDeleteThe next question I’d ask, is what is an ethical standard? What is “honor”, “integrity”, “dignity”, “pride”, etc.. What does it mean to be honorable?
If one “does the honorable thing” for the simple sake of being considered honorable, is he an honorable person. Or rather, is honor something that naturally comes out of ones own nature. i.e. there’s the social aspect of these “golden star” terms, and a personal one. In this sense there’s the matter of intent….
Suppose you find that the world is no longer tolerable so you retire to the land. To fill your time you busy yourself tinkering with various mechanical things and find yourself more content then you’ve ever been. Upon your death, people come to clear out your estate, finding plans and an unfinished model to an amazing (and un-thought of before) new energy system. In your death you are heralded (or more importantly labeled) as a hero to all mankind, given the title of eccentric genius, and are awarded an honorable Nobel Prize in science and peace.
So let me ask you; are you any of these things, or were you just a guy who enjoyed life away from the prongs of society? What you did was merely a product of your enjoyment, for you (especially in your death) it was completely trivial that society at large benefited in such a way and labeled you as such. It was never your intent, you were driven simply by your desire to be alone, and exercise your mind and spirit in a way that suited you.