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We continue our series of editorials on ten guiding words crucial to the mission of refocusing the conservative movement. We began with reality and reason - this week we take a look at morality.
Much of the behavior and thinking we unfairly attribute to things a person can't control, like color and gender, can more surely be traced to cultural influences. Cultural exposures exert powerful impact on people, and though men may be created equal, cultures certainly aren't. Morality plays an important role in the character of any culture.
Morality Matters
One of the safeguards crucial to the cultural health and longevity of is a moral code guiding membership behavior. Cultures - including our own - are very vulnerable to internal corruption. Sustainable values are at least as important to a culture's survival as a standing army and protected borders.
Morality is about right and wrong. Right and wrong matters for the same reason that up and down and hot and cold matters. Morality whitewashers need only jump off a ladder or touch a hot stove to see that nature operates with a preference for black and white truisms - including morality.
Though most humans are born with an innate sense of conscience, that commodity, like gold, is of no value unless it is dug up and brought to life. A morale code is the spark that turns our buried conscience into precious action.
History tells us that societies seeking longevity must vigilantly guard their moral character. For the same reasons we brush our teeth, paint our house, and change the oil on our car - maintenance of our moral character is a never ending challenge.
Why Does it Matter?
Christian philosopher C. S. Lewis defined morality as crucial for three reasons - to insure fair play and harmony between individuals; to help make us good people in order to have a good society; and to keep us in good relationship with the power that created us.
Though no longer with us, Lewis was a moral agent who defined the necessity of a clear separation between good and evil. Without care, it is possible to develop a confused morality that is anything but good. Evil usually looks and feels good, but does bad. Hitler and his minions corrupted one of the greatest cultures in world history with that formula. The killing fields of Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia also point to morality gone bad.
Conservatives are Dedicated to Morality
Authentic conservative thinking is guided by reality and reason. Both tell us that having a moral code about right and wrong is central to being a positive force in what is arguably a fallen world. There is persistent evidence that man, standing alone without a moral compass of guiding values, has great difficulty keeping his wits about him.
Our moral code can grow and adapt, but of necessity remain anchored to central principles sincere to the test of time. True morality does not exist without a significant measure of honesty, compassion, love, sacrifice, responsibility, courage and commitment.
Conservative thinkers recognize the importance of being conservative doers. Having a morale code that guides that behavior provides a steering wheel to compliment a powerful engine. It does not appear possible to live in a stormy world and remain good without morality's beacon to a wobbly human conscience.
Next week - Part 3 on "Real Conservative" - Unity
Dr. Carl Mumpower
www.thecandidconservative.com
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