The Eternal Question

Ever since we have walked upon the Earth, we've asked ourselves questions about morality- good and evil. What is it? Where does it come from? What is good and what is evil? Everyone has their own subjective interpretation of what good and evil are. We all want to believe that there are good and evil things in the world. It makes the world easier to understand, only, every time we experience something, our understanding of what is good and what is evil changes. How can we answer such a question if the very nature of good and evil are subjective and mutable?

Societies answer the question in a never-ending cycle of legislation, social norms, invisible contracts, backroom deals, and they exert force to impose their will, their version of good and evil upon others. It happens every day, and yet we still cling like children to the belief that there is such a thing as morality. Since every society that has ever existed has never answered the question, there is a very real chance that morality is a lie. A lie that exists in every corner of our lives.

Worse, it is a lie that we tell ourselves. We rationalize our experiences; we create a false reality by framing our actions, and the actions of others, in the conveniently labelled boxes of good and evil. Religions are based upon it. Philosophies struggle to answer the question. We use the concept to justify our decisions.

Morality is a joke.

The Universe Is Amoral

In every corner of the universe we examine, there are processes that occur in a never-ending cascade of interactions that follow predictable and calculable patterns. It is unfeeling, unthinking, and machine-like in it's operation. It has existed for billions upon billions of years, operating endlessly. Lives exist in the universe, they begin and end and the universe itself takes no notice. Life is just a cog in the machine, a series of processes working in tandem, just like everything else. There is no right and wrong in the universe. Things just are.

Either you reproduce or you don't, evolution doesn't care. Likewise, the universe doesn't care if we live, die, exist, or not exist. It will do what it does because that's what it does. Here, we observe creatures from viruses to monstrous water-mammals doing what they do because that's what they do. We do things because that's what we do. Just like everything else.

The Great Deception

Since morality is a subjective judgement, largely what we believe to be good and evil are things we want or don't want. Societies shape our behavior by telling us what we want, and what we want is good. What society doesn't want is evil. Groups of people, your friends, your families, your co-workers, the companies that sell you moral swill, every last one will tell you that what is good is what they are doing, and that what is bad is what they aren't. They use morality as a weapon to justify their actions and say that what they desire is what is good and right for you.

Pick a controversial topic. Abortion, factory farming, vegetarianism, gun control, religion, any will do. Everyone has an opinion on the matter, and what it boils down to every time, is what is right or wrong. What is good, or what is evil.

Abortion: Killing unborn children is wrong/Denying women the ability to control their bodies is wrong

Factory farming: Ensuring people are fed is good/Mistreating animals is wrong

Vegetarianism: Eating plants is healthier and therefore right, or we shouldn't kill animals because they have the right to live/Eating animals is natural and therefore right, or killing happens all the time so it is right

Gun control: Guns are bad because they kill people/Denying people the right to defend themselves is bad

Religion: God is real and the source of everything good in this world, so it must be good/God doesn't exist so believing in it is stupid and therefore bad

Every single person eventually uses morality to justify their position. We do it because it is what we want. It serves our ends for any number of endless reasons. The deep truth, is that it doesn't matter in the slightest whether or not it is right or wrong. Because it's never right or wrong. Only what we want and what we believe will get us what we want.

Do not Succumb to Morality

But, if we do whatever we want, we'll be thrown in prison or killed, and it's just not right to do these things to other people! I wouldn't want it to happen to me!

Yes, we know that what you want is good and that what you don't want is evil. We fight wars over what we want and what we don't want. So what?

Dude, are you saying that you should be able to do whatever you want without consequences? Reality check, that's not going to happen. You're retarded. (That's bad right?)

Imagine that. So other people decided what they want was more important than what I want. So what?

Societies wouldn't exist if we didn't have something to tell us what is good and what is bad!

It's just a collective of people who have similar wants and not-wants and use that under the guise of morality. And they use their collective force to control what everyone does. Is it not interesting that other societies have different wants and not-wants? Which one is good? Which one is evil? None of them are. They just exist because that's what we do. It is an amoral process that we compete in. Nothing more. We do what we do because it is what we want. If we want to get laid, we'll do whatever we can to do that, as long as what others don't want doesn't become something WE don't want. There's no "morality" there.

Next time, instead of thinking what you are about to do is good or evil, think about whether or not it is something you want to do, and if you want what the others around you want as well. And maybe, instead of picking something else you tell yourself you want, you'll actually go and do the things that you WANT TO DO.