Monday, March 23, 2009

What to do, what to do, part deux....

Which leads me to the concept of honour. Neglected, abused, dying of starvation in this society. Like a god that has lost its worshippers, honour has faded into a shadow of its former self.

What happened to honour? When did modern North America become the land of sociopaths? To quote Rosie DiManno from the March 23rd Toronto Star, writing on a far more tragic subject...”The absence of conscience is a non-correctible disfigurement of character. There is no effective treatment. In a word: Guiltlessness. More words: Remorseless, deceitful, manipulative, self-centred, callous, unscrupulous, emotionally shallow.”

Is it the overwhelming prevalence of vulgar, shallow American television programming? Can’t blame the CBC, no one watches it...except I loved The Tudors. One would be hard-pressed to find a more vicious, self-centred, callous group. Although I must thank Henry for freeing us from the Vatican, and eventually opening the way for agnostics and atheists alike.

But I digress. Back to honour...character...and the lack of it.

I know the dishonourable can look in the mirror in the morning, because they have no remorse.

How are morality and conscience eradicated from people’s minds?

1 comment:

Caveat said...

The true sociopath is born that way, ie, with no conscience or empathy.

I'm just watching The Agenda, where they are discussing the need to belong. An example of a study was given, where participants were to state which line was longer when displayed on a screen.

Only one of four was naive, the others had been clued in. The first three said the obviously shorter line, Line A, was longer. The naive participant, surprisingly, almost always agreed even though it was clear that Line B was longer.

The conclusion was that reality has little to do with it; social pressure has a lot to do with it. So, if every lowbrow in your social circle hates atheists, or homosexuals or whatever, it's likely that most people won't want to rock the boat and be ostracized so won't speak out. It's how the Nazis took over Germany, to use an extreme example.

Then there are rebels like us who aren't so vulnerable to peer pressure.

When you have media (who are basically just a branch of govt these days) constantly harping about something, for example 'pit bulls', even though people's own experience contradicts the fear-mongering and outright lies, they will tend to 'agree' with the propaganda in order to belong, feel part of a social group - even an invisible one.

It's important, in my view, that sources be credible. The mainsteam media, self-serving politicians, salesmen and others who have an agenda that is more important to them than standing up for what is right or relaying accurate, unbiased information have a lot to answer for these days.

Schools should teach students how to critically appraise what they read and hear, how to look to reality to ascertain what's true and what isn't and how to stand up for what is right. They need to understand basic principles of justice and fairness. Unfortunately these days, they barely learn how to read, let alone interpret material.