{"collection":"bos","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bos/bos081.htm","path":"bos/bos081.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bos/bos081.htm","text":"Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999]\n \n \n This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. \n Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by \n High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., \n 80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain \n Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to \n reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein \n without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or \n abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original \n author.! \n \n IN GRANDMOTHER'S LAP \n Copyright 1987, RMPJ \n \n \"Morals are the nagging fear that somebody somewhere may be \n having a good time.\" --H. L. Mencken \n \n What is the difference between one of us and Oral Roberts? \n Well, hopefully there are lots of differences, but the top one \n on my list is that I work on being ethical and he is a moralist. \n \n The moralist knows how everybody else should behave in order \n to be a good person, avoid Hell, fit into decent society, etc., \n etc. He is quite likely to feel that he is a valid exception to \n all his own rules, since he can handle temptation and control his \n outcomes. His main characteristic is frantic paranoid distrust \n of other people. No one should be seen nude, for instance, \n because this would be un-bearably sexually arousing and lead to \n promiscuity, neglect of ordinary duties, etc. He knows he can \n control himself, but everybody else has to be \"protected\" from \n their evil impulses. His major defence is projection: \"I'm not \n oversexed, and of course I'd never want to be or want to be \n unfaithful to my wife, but that woman in the (name situation or \n article of clothing) sure is asking for it. Ultimate expressions \n of this type of thinking are wife-beating -- one man said, \"When \n I walked into the self-help group I thought that when they heard \n what I'd had to put up with they'd con-gratulate me for not \n having killed her.\" -- and witch-burning -- \"I am a good person. \n Bad things do not happen to good people. A bad thing has \n happened to me. Somebody did it! Kill them!\" \n \n In essence, the moralist is saying \"It can't be my fault \n (I'm not able to face the idea that it might be my fault). It \n must be somebody else's fault. If people would just follow these \n few simple rules, which I'll be glad to explain to them, nothing \n would go wrong and I wouldn't have to feel anxious. But since \n they won't all follow my rules, everything is their fault, not \n mine, and I don't have to feel anxious.\" \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Last amended June 11, 1989 -- Page NEXTRECORD \n \n \n 315\n \n \n To me this is nauseating. I have no idea how you \"should\" \n behave; who are you? What's the situation? Who else is \n affected? Even then, the best I could offer would be some \n suggestions of courses of action which might have good results -- \n but I don't believe there are any simple rules for human conduct \n which are always \"right.\" What I do believe is that ethical \n behavior consists of choosing your actions such that you can look \n at yourself in the mirror in the morning without flinching. \n Which means I can see a Corsican being ethical and killing \n another person as part of a feud; a gypsy being ethical and \n defrauding a gaujo. I suspect that what I mean here is that \n ethics impel you to be true to your own values, while morals make \n you want to \n a) control others, and \n b) not get caught yourself. But being ethical implies that they \n are your own values, which you have thought through and decided \n to accept, and not just the ones you have swallowed whole from \n your family or culture. \n \n Marjoe, a famous evangelist who later went straight, \n described preaching hellfire and damnation and then going back to \n the motel and making love to his girlfriend of the moment -- who \n had to be flown in from New York so the locals wouldn't know what \n he was doing. Oral Roberts says people have to give him $8 \n million, or God will \"call him home.\" These are examples of \n people whose highest priority is influencing others, making the \n right kind of impression - the actuality doesn't seem to be \n really relevant to their choice-making process. \n \n The ethical person, on the other hand, may not care at all \n about the impression he is erig; he will say in total sincerity \n \"I know I look like a fool for doing it, but I couldn't have \n lived with myself if I hadn't.\" Or even harder, \"I know you \n think I'm being hard and cruel, but I honestly believe this is \n the best solution in the circumstances.\" \n \n Next issue (are you holding your breath?) the difference be- \n tween act idealism and absolute idealism, or how to tell a witch \n from a fundamentalist without a score card. \n \n The Spinster Aunt .......... FROM RMPJ, 2/3/1987 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Last amended June 11, 1989 -- Page NEXTRECORD \n \n \n 316","title":"Internet Book of Shadows: In Grandmother's Lap (RMPJ)","type":"page"}