#29: Turn Our Eyes to Morality

Telling lies without any shame. Trying to deceive further by fabricating more lies on top of lies. Engaging in unethical behavior for personal gains. Hiding facts and tampering with evidence as a coverup. And even when these shameful actions are revealed, arguing that there’s nothing wrong “Because it’s legal.”
 
It seems as though we come across more people with such mistaken ideas than before.
 
Surely, this societal trend has something to do with the likes of Trump and Abe – who engage in unethical behavior and then try to bully their way out with threats and political pressure. In fact, we see this kind of Me-First attitude not only in the US and Japan, but across the globe in the shape of Selfish Populism.
 
Behind this nasty trend is the fact that we’ve turned too much of a blind eye to morality.
 
Equipped with good education and a shiny college degree, my life will be all set. Over time, our education system plagued with such narrow misconception has fallen into assigning excessive value to knowledge above morality. Thus, those “Good” education and universities are increasingly losing sight of morality. College entrance exam system – almost sacredly adhered to in Japan and Korea – is a perfect illustration of this.
 
Subprime mortgage crisis that triggered the Lehman Shock in 2008. An egregious risk transfer scam for poorly underwritten loans that had miniscule chance of repayment within a few years from origination. At the epicenter of this crisis was the uncontrollable American financial system whose moral judgement was utterly blinded by endless profiteering.
 
At the time, Wall Street was one of the most coveted destinations for the “Brightest minds” who graduated at or near the top of their classes at the best US universities and MBAs. The fact that such industry so blatantly lost sight of morality is a clear sign of neglect of morality at the US educational institutions.
 
Yet, somewhere between the layers of conscious and subconscious, they faintly but distinctly had already sensed the wickedness in all this. For these schools who pride themselves in a well-balanced character education as opposed to rote memorizations, it nevertheless was a great shock.
 
So then, what is a “Good education?”
 
That is, an education that actively embraces Morality, Ethics and Empathy, and challenges us to feel them with our hearts and think with our minds. An education that paves our paths toward a society that champions these values. Many eyes look to this direction in the field of education, today.
 
An Immoral Intellectual or an Uneducated Moralist.
 
If we were to choose between these two extremes, without a moment of hesitation, let us choose the moralist.
 
It’s because if we harness high moral conscience, then we have a real shot at bringing peace and happiness to the world, even in the absence of knowledge. On the contrary, even if we possess a spectacular set of knowledge, world peace will be lost without a moral compass. We may even risk total annihilation of happiness in the world through senseless wars.
 
Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty prohibits the testing, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons. This first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons was passed in 2017, with 122 nations in favor of the agreement – more than 60% of the UN member nations.
 
Japan, the only country in history to ever suffer atomic bombings, nonetheless opposed even the talks for this treaty. Likewise, the US and all nuclear powers boycotted the talks. These actions of cowardice display poor moral judgement at the expense of a peaceful world. How can we possibly expect the world to respect such countries as great leaders? What kind of a doom are we trying to lead the world into?
 
If our moral conscience is intact, then we can acquire more knowledge without sacrificing our morality. And as for the intellectuals, we can humbly learn to advance morality.
 
Knowledge is powerful, but it’s not enough. Let us turn our own eyes to morality.

Read Theme: Morality