I am sure to alienate readers by putting forth the words Forgiveness, freedom, and ethical behavior in a single sentence. There is practically no treatise on ethical behavior that is worth our time of day. Forgiveness has been corralled by religion. What could be more boring than a religious exhortation or something that dare links ethics with freedom? Isn’t freedom a release from ethical constraints?
The considerations in the previous paragraph illustrate the current obsolescence of the terms discussed.
Up to speed
To get up to speed on forgiveness do not turn to religious texts.
To get current on freedom do not concentrate on political speeches. What ought to be universal has become more like a product than a Daily option that should be practiced by every human being on the planet. We are heading into the new with little sense of what key terms even mean.
No, I do not have the answer or the seminar or whatever promise you are used to getting in today’s self-promotional environment. What I do have are some basic concepts that may or may not satisfy you.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is an acknowledgment that we are are prone to doing harm. We do it knowingly and we do it half-consciously. We also experience some level of guilt. This information should alert one to the need for resolution.
Being forgiven fills that need.
Forgiveness does not come from the person or group you offended. It comes from you. It comes from inside. You may see your forgiver as Abba or God or Allah or any other transcendent reality. You may see it as something within you that amounts to a conscience or higher self.
A person who can live guilt free without being a pathological liar is a good candidate for being a true progressive – someone who serves, who cares, who moves in good ways.
Freedom
Freedom is nothing more or less than the capacity to choose. It is a utility in every person. It is not Lee Greenwood loving the USA. It is not even escaping something. It is what we do from dawn to dusk. We decide between one thing and another.
When we attach this capacity of decision making to values we are on the threshold of becoming positive human beings.
Ethical behavior
Ethical behavior is not watching a TV panel examining ten different and conflicting answers to some involved question. That’s a game. Ethics is an index of values within every person. It lives in what we call the conscience. Everyone has a conscience whether they know it or not. Even psychology, with its capacity for rationalization, cannot eliminate the priorities of tolerance, helpfulness, and democracy.
Trump Made the Swamp Worse. Here’s How to Drain It. https://t.co/g3wtdJmvlZ
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) October 26, 2017
These three named values represent the action index that we encounter when we think about what to do and say.
Crazy or sane
Is it crazy to assume we can be forgiving, free, and ethical Human Beings?
It is crazy not to assume so. One way or another, if we have not been intimidated or massively abused, we know we are meant to tolerate things. We know we are best if we can help others. We know that there are rights that extend far beyond just ourselves. If we consider these values regularly we see they lead to a good way of life.
Insanity is the relativism of the last century which suggested that everything can be explained mechanically. Sanity is seeing that we are responsible human beings who need the qualities noted here to begin to realize our best potential.
