Where is your moral event horizon?

I got one of those? It must be around here someplace. I have morals but the hell I know the kind of ones I have. I’m not really good or really bad. I’m kind of in the middle of everything.

I always skipped school but never work…I didn’t belive that school was real…but at work I was needed some poor soul would have to work my shift…So If I didn’t belive in something I wouldn’t care about it.

Last time i ran across it was near the bottom of a bottle of tequila, right next to the worm. We had a long soulfull chat that night then agreed to disagree about who ate the worm

At the edge of my moral black hole.

Just curious. How can you lie (to a person) or steal (from a person) without directly harming a person? Do you only lie to spare peoples’ feelings, and only steal from the rich like Robin Hood?

@dalepetrie I don’t steal anymore, but when I did, I wouldn’t do something like steal someone’s purse or take something from their home, I just shoplifted. Obviously, both are bad things to do, but I irrationally only feel bad about the latter, even though objectively I know that what I feel is wrong. I was trying to show that right and wrong can be subjective to individuals, and to elicit serious answers from people.

Lying is a murkier issue. Most people will tell you that it’s wrong to lie but it’s ok to spare someone’s feelings, but we can also lie to spare our own feelings. Sometimes I meet a new person where I don’t see a deeper relationship developing, and they ask a personal question about some part of my life. I might lie and just say that everything is normal, because I really don’t want them to pity me and press me for details. I’m not lying out of a desire to spare their feelings, but because talking about something personal might make me feel bad. Sometimes I also lie about my motivations for doing certain things. The action is known, but the reason isn’t. I don’t think stuff like this hurts other people, but again, I feel differently from most people on this.

For me, my moral event horizon is really “far off”. I’ve changed a lot these past few years. A few years ago, I would happily steal school supplies or a novel from the classroom library (Mnhm, no kidding) if I wanted them. Now, I treat everyone like I would myself (and no, I do not cut myself and do that kind of stuff!) unless they really get on my nerves, and it is very hard to do that!

I think it’s when you start abusing your “second chances” that you become evil, although I’m positive there are exceptions to this. Good question. I’ll have to get back to you with more details…

I would agree that my morals and values are the same in that I would never deliberately set out to hurt somebody. Sometimes its necessary to protect or you may think you’re protecting that person by telling ‘white’ lies and not giving them the exact facts…usually the decision to withhold something is down to the fact that you may know that person enough to know that the truth may hurt.

I’ve had a recent discussion with somebody and stated that if they follow through with something at a particular time which with would be totally callous and unfeeling if they did…then I would totally step right out of character and forget my pride, self-control etc…(which is definitely not me) and damage their car.

Call me evil…but at least it’s not directly hurting anyone as such and I’m still sticking to my morals and values lol

Mine is set so close I am constantly running into it.

Everyone’s body and life are their own, exclusively, and don’t fuck with children.

Everything else is subjective.

My personal limits are: I will not do physical or material harm to another except in self-defense. I will not take what does not belong to me. I will not invade the privacy of another or tolerate my own being violated. I am also extremely careful of my words and actions around members of the opposite gender (I have a personal phobia about being accused of sexual harassment).

I have a personal moral and ethical code I live by, which is essentially trying to be the most honest, sincere, good person I can be. I hate lying and generally try to avoid it, and I always, always return a lost wallet or purse if only to pay it forward (I know how it feels to lose my purse and how good it is when it’s returned intact, likewise, I once had my purse stolen and know how awful it feels and how much of an inconvenience it is).

However, my code is not black and white, exactly. If someone has done something ethically or morally wrong to me, I feel I have leeway to do them back the same way, though generally I try to take the moral high ground. I believe in karma and try to be satisfied with the knowledge that the person will eventually get their just desserts. I’ve had one occasion in my life where two people willingly and somewhat gleefully made my life a living hell, which pushed me to a place of anger and vengeance I’ve never been before or since. I did something I consider awful to them, but I have a hard time feeling bad about it.

My current job has been stealing money from the server tip pool for as long as I’ve worked there, resulting in a personal loss of thousands of dollars. So, this has made me more poor than I should be, and I feel hardly a twinge when I steal coffee or a case of water or a 5 pound bag of cheese.

to me being evil is deliberately doing something to harm another living thing and to feel no remorse

I don’t really have a set list of things I will and will not do. People have no idea what they are capable of, given extreme circumstances.

My choices in the moment are really based upon how I would feel about myself if I were to do/say/cause something bad to happen to another living thing; for the long and short term.

Everything we do is selfish, even when in the service.