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Except mormons don’t police it; they make it shameful and morally wrong. Most western societies rely too heavily on laws to govern every aspect of their societ
by simianparrot 1y ago
Except mormons don’t police it; they make it shameful and morally wrong.
Most western societies rely too heavily on laws to govern every aspect of their society when laws and police are there for the extremes; the rest must be managed by shaming and talking to people who break the unwritten moral rules.
The reason for this is that societal morals evolve, change and adapt more organically than any rigid bureaucratic processes can. You don’t want law based dress codes beyond a certain bare minimum (ie. naked), but instead you want people to govern themselves and be encouraged to tell others off for dressing inappropriately around others in the community.
Western liberal societies in particular have slid down into depravity because we’ve made it _immoral_ to be individual moralists. If it’s not against the law, it’s all acceptable. A man that abuses drugs and lives off welfare all his life is as lawful as a man that works hard every day for himself and his family and pays taxes that contribute to supporting the former’s lifestyle. But they are not morally the same, and it’s obvious to most of us. But we risk losing our livelihoods if we say so out loud.
- rangestransform 1y agoPhilosophically, what do I owe society if I exist without my consent? What is actually morally wrong about opting out and choosing to live on the kindness of society, if society is willingly kind to me through charity or laws? The social contract is a good place to start to think about this but still doesn’t address where someone’s debt to society comes from, besides not actively harming other humans.
- simianparrot 1y agoFor you to live comfortably off society without contributing anything back means someone else is paying for your comfort both monetarily (like taxes) or with their time and energy, maintaining all the services to facilitate your lifestyle. If you don’t see that as at least a little immoral that’s up to you, but I would never be comfortable doing so. It goes against my fundamental character. Society only works through cooperation, it’s not about a “debt”.
- rayiner 1y agoObligations taken on through consent are only a subset of all obligations. Obligations also arise out of the nature of a thing and its relationship to other things.
- rangestransform 1y agoI'd be genuinely interested to hear about the other types of obligations, even if you just linked some reading material