Practical Morality

“Never do anything in secret or anything that you would wish to hide.” - Jawaharlal Nehru

What does it mean to live a good life. I’ve been struggling with this question for a long time. Questions like this are not only difficult but require an overhaul or a clear understanding of yours own values.

Beginning to answer this question is hard, but I’ve found a great starting point. “Never do anything in secret or anything that you would wish to hide.” Jawaharlal Nehru (The first prime minister of India said this in a letter to his daughter Indira Gandhi, the first woman prime minister of India. This is the same understanding I received from “Crime and Punishment”, but Nehru said it succinctly.

You can’t honestly say, “Hey, yeah, I stole that,” or “Hey, I lied to you.” If you can’t honestly say it with your chest out and be proud of what you did, then there is an issue there, and the logic, the part where it breaks, is when you think it’s okay. What if you think stealing is okay, and then you’re proud of doing it as well? I think that’s when you really have to go deeper, and some of that is answered by looking at Plato’s Republic. Plato/Socrates points out is that education is a very important part of justice. He talks about censorship of anything bad, anything evil, shouldn’t even be mentioned in youth. There shouldn’t be an alternative way of thinking to Plato’s prescribed justice. ( There are issues with that aswell)

So if I had to go back and tell myself how to act as a good person, I would definitely think a great starting point would be: how do I feel about it? When I do certain things, how do I feel about it? Can I say that with my chest? When I’m confused about when something is good or bad, is that something I’m okay saying with my chest? Honestly, it’s comparable to Kant’s categorical imperative or the golden rule is saying, “Treat others the way you want to be treated,” but there’s such an easy loophole in that. You can say, “Hey, I wouldn’t mind if someone stole from me if they had nothing and really needed the money.” There are ways around it, but adding this to your morality tool kit can defnitley fill some of thos gaps.

By this standard there are many things I’ve done in the past that I’d like to stay hidden. I’m not too worried if those come to light. My fear stems from the actions that I continue to do, that I’m ashamed to do. This is a seperate affair from making mistakes, that’s natural and I can forgive myself. However what about the mistakes that I know I am making. I keep stumbling on the same rock over and over again. Maybe I’m not trying hard enough, or maybe I’m doing too much. I guess this is what keeps life interesting. I’m not giving up on being as good of a person as possible.

Side NOTE : OMG I’ve caught myself giving unsolicited advice so much, and I need to stop doing that. I hate it when people do it to me, and unsolicited advice, isn’t really good even if it’s good advice. The person hearing is just trying to get out of the conversation. Me lecturing them on anything isn’t going to do anything, just like how when my parents told me not to lie, about things I never listened. Yeah just on the look out for that, I’ve done it twice, and I really don’t want to be that guy.

I love summer so much.