Friday, January 13, 2006
Ethical Imperative
[Ed. note: the following is excerpted from the essay Moral Sanction, posted last spring. The full essay is available at http://skookumgeoduck.blogspot.com/2005/05/moral-sanction.html]
The patterns of cultural preference, consciously articulated as values, provide continuity and grounding in times of social disintegration, turmoil, and transition. The core values expressed in acts of moral sanction--even if they at times motivate righteously indignant believers to commit violence--are ultimately the foundation on which a new society can reintegrate around altered relationships of the old.
As such, communication of these values leads to the empowering acts of individuals that develop commitment to a process of transformation they believe will lead to greater fulfillment of these values. Faith in the possibility of justice, despite the evidence of history, is sometimes all that prevents the complete annihilation of human dignity. Hence the ethical imperative to fight for lost causes.
The patterns of cultural preference, consciously articulated as values, provide continuity and grounding in times of social disintegration, turmoil, and transition. The core values expressed in acts of moral sanction--even if they at times motivate righteously indignant believers to commit violence--are ultimately the foundation on which a new society can reintegrate around altered relationships of the old.
As such, communication of these values leads to the empowering acts of individuals that develop commitment to a process of transformation they believe will lead to greater fulfillment of these values. Faith in the possibility of justice, despite the evidence of history, is sometimes all that prevents the complete annihilation of human dignity. Hence the ethical imperative to fight for lost causes.
