Right and Wrong vs. Gut Feelings
“They were the best of times. They were the worst of times.”
These, of course, are the opening words to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The reason they are so recognizable is because they ring true. We’ve all experienced the truth that the worst and the best can be encapsulated in the same thing.
That’s exactly how life works. Impossible situations everywhere you turn.
Many times these situations exist because of another truth:
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” ~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act II, scene ii
Every day we’re faced with these sorts of choices… and that’s the problem. It’s not a problem because we have to chose from two extremes that are really the same thing; it’s a problem because we’re forced to do it so often that we don’t even think about it. In the end, it isn’t thinking that determines good or bad, it’s gut feeling.
Gut feelings are a survival instinct. They keep us alive in situations where we have to make instant choices or die. And so we learn to trust our gut feelings and rely on them… even in situations where thinking would serve us better. The problem with gut feelings is that they know what is best for us, not necessarily what is best, all things considered.
The way all of this can become a serious problem is that we can wind up in situations where, without thinking about it, we end up making moral choices based on gut feelings. And in those situations, we can end up feeling that what is Right is simply what is good for us.
And when we do that, we’ve become monsters.
