Are morals just crutches for the weak?

I think it might be best if you’d amplify your question in the details section. Without some explanation of what you mean by it, I would have to answer straight off that it takes a strong person to live by moral principles and that I don’t see how the weak could possibly lean on them. Your explanation would help us get beyond definitions to thinking about the actual question.

Yes, they are to help the weak and vulnerable. But they also help the strong. If the strong go around beating up the individual weak folks, they the weak folks will band together and execute the strong folks. Morals are about cooperation and long term thinking. They are about making the best world we can for the most folks.

What a lovely philosophy. Civilized people do not believe that the world belongs to the brutish and violent. If you operate in the method you lay out in which you prey on those weaker than you, then you guarantee that someone more powerful and violent will take you down.

In a society that works that way, there is no time for contemplation, research, invention, art, because people are spending all their time defending themselves from bullies or bullying others.

In my opinion, preying on lesser beings is a sign of great weakness. Weakness of character, weakness of impulse control, lack of intelligence.

Also, I never ascribe morals to school principals, alone or in groups.

Morals serve to protect the rights of all sentient beings.

Morals are something that everyone, everywhere should strive to adhere to in their everyday lives. It’s what seperates good people from those that live by immoral, illicit, and unscrupulous means.

I can’t even begin to imagine how morals are ‘crutches’ for anything and I would feel horrible if I didn’t maintain an honest and respectable life without morals. Following these standards by no means makes me think that I or others are helpless or weak in any way whatsoever.

I would say morals are a personal code of ethic.
The weak are the ones who have no morals to guide their actions.

@daloon You said, ”...making the best world we can for the most folks.” Lovely.

The one who dies with the most friends, wins.

@Zen: First I’ve heard about competitive morality. I wonder where it takes place? The Colliseum? If we all follow the same moral code, we all win. For the most part, as far as I can tell, moral codes are pretty much the same across religions and cultures.

@daloon Semantix

You say either, I say let’s all be friends, have a party, get drunk and go naked. The one who dies with the most friends, and fewest enemies on fluther, wins.

@Zen I, for one, do not plan to die on fluther. Nor do I intend to win. Or lose. However, I do plan to get naked. Or maybe not. Don’t want to scare all the pretty young ladies. In fact, I think we should have a maypole celebration, chaired by our young feminie cadre. I have every faith that they will do a bang-up job!

BTW, you spelled “semantix” wrong. It’s cementix.

@daloon Funny, funny! 4rl. It’s semathatrix, actually. She’s available now, www.samanthatrix.com

Side q: Is feminie cadre Latin for “dead girls?” If so, I don’t understand. (Too drunk to dial www.dictionary.com) Please explain.

@Zen—Oh. Sorry. I should have explained. “Feminie” is an old-fashioned term, referring to young ladies who were willing to show their knees in public. It was quite the scandal at the time, and this group of women eventually became known as the “feminie cadre.” They were particularly well-known for the exuberance with which they dispensed with their clothing at Maypole celebrations. Make sense?

@daloon Makes a lot of sense. Let’s party, man. Get some women with knees showing and a keg, dude.

No! Morals are a person’s code. It is possible to have no morals, but almost all people have morals because almost all people have beliefs and opinions. The strongest and deepest thinking people had and have morals because they know what is right and wrong and hold to those beliefs.

If you want an in depth look at morals, anything Ayn Rand is insightful, even if you don’t believe in her general theories.