Forcing morality
March 2021
A reason why I never resonated with the universal imposition of “be a good human” is people start being a good human in a systematic way to fit in. Like an adjustment in their resume or deck catered to the role.
The ideology of goodness, kindness, righteousness, humility, etc needs to exist. But are often hacked. Hence shouldn’t be preached or used as a benchmark. This sort of filtration creates imposters and a generation labels the necessary adjustment to qualify as a syndrome.
Some realization, some understanding are better left for an individual to reach themselves instead of being taught. Else you’ll keep creating people with the same system of ethics and the falsifiability of the system is lost eventually. That's how religions are formed.
Let's take an example of design hiring. Many people have words like "community", "human-centric", and "social impact" mentioned across their social persona and portfolio to signal higher principles. While not necessarily these are things important to them (which is okay tbh). They are trying to fit in, they are smart. Resonance in the identity of contributor and company is a requirement to qualify for access (religion disguised as culture-fit). And they knowingly strip themselves out of their truth because their real identity might not signal them well as a hire otherwise. Not to say, hiring processes are wrecked to demand the same. We promote lying by framing it as "adjusting for the job description". And then get pissed off when people start bringing only a part of themselves to the job because that portion is what they were hired on. You make them do that for a long time, they forget who they are and become one like you. And we are back to making teams more diverse.
We live in a multicultural society with limited agreement. Any majority obligating individuals to be virtuous as defined by their community ethics is not inclusive. And gatekeeping using that is further discriminatory.
Be a good human, empathize, forgive, and be humble when your inner self is calling you to be. Else when a trait becomes your identity, it ceases to be a good trait.
until next time