In the USA, some politicians or leaders have been able to get away with the most egregious and unbelievable of crimes, again and again simply because the orchestrated them, but they are not the one that actually committed them. Someone else in their network was the one actually doing it, even if they orchestrated it and pulled all the strings like a sly jester. Because of this, you see people in positions of power that should require high moral standing and exemplary personal accountability, who are just corrupt, and openly bad people. Take Matt Gaetz as an example. He’s been accused of some pretty awful things, and despite that, was elected to the House of Representatives, and later appointed as attorney general, the highest position of legal authority in the USA. There is nothing moral or upstanding about this person.
So how in the world are the future generations of the world supposed to know what is right or wrong, if those concepts don’t even exist anymore? If you can go do all sorts of horrible things and then get elected as someone who represents the entire country, what kind of message does that send to the rest of society? That there’s no accountability, that breaking the law is okay as long as you get away with it, And it also gives someone else out there in the world someone to look up to and to aspire to be more like. It gives people who make bad decisions and icon to admire and idolize. It allows other people to seek similar positions of power, and other corrupt people to vote for them, creating a very vicious cycle.
But the actual stupid question: How our younger people supposed to know what’s right or wrong anymore then? Our entire belief system of right and wrong was formulated based on doing the right thing no matter what, and having punishments for people who don’t. Seems like the world has moved away from that, and there is no more punishment, even rewards for people who do terrible things. I don’t understand how the younger generation is supposed to learn and understand
Put simply, by helping them to understand that morality and the Law are separate concepts.
I’ve said it for decades at this point, but we really need to add philosophy to our standard curriculum; this is one of the big issues that would help address
Remember that before democracies, people in power really faced no consequences
Remember that legality and ethics/morality is not always the same thing.
Lets not talk government for a bit .
Say, you have an anarchist community. People just minding their own bussiness. You see someone has a thing you want but you don’t have. What happens if you take that thing? The person is not gonna be happy. Imagine if someone toom a thing you owned, you’d feels the same, right. That’s why you dont steal.
And if anyone finds out, you get your entire community not liking the fact that someone has been stealing, since they also would not like that happening to them. So there will be consequences whatever the community decides to do.
Same thing with killings, you don’t want that happening to you or people (or pets) you care about. So you should not be doing it. And again, if the community finds out, you’re in big trouble.
Now even when you have a higher authority like a government, there can still be vigilantism.
Even in modern society, if you kill someone and get identified and somehow get away with the charges. You still aren’t consequence-free. You might esacpe the law, but you might face a vengeful relative of the person you killed. Imagine living with the fear that at any moment, someone could come by and kill you in revenge.
So there is still possibility of consequences.
Even politicians can face assassination attempt. I mean I do not advocate that stuff, but like if politicians piss of enough people, there can be a revolution that gets them killed.
TlDR: You should still refrain from doing bad things because (1) A society that tells people its okay to do that would lead to people also doing that bad deed to you, and (2) You can face vigilantism / mob justice (however unlikely it maybe, there is still a chance and you don’t wanna take that change).
Your premise is inherently flawed. There absolutely are consequences…
For you and me. Just not for the elite or politicians.
Ding ding ding folks. Wilhoit’s law: Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
and later appointed as attorney general
he was not
The point still stands, the next apointee is also not gonna be a upstanding human being.
yeah, i get that.
If the only reason you don’t do bad things is because you’re afraid of punishment, you’re not a good person. The problem is that we used punishment as a crutch to begin with.
This is the problem behind religion.
Athiests can be good people. Athiests can also be bad people. Same as any other group.
But hardcore christians will tell you that anyone who doesn’t believe in god is an immoral sinner, who freely murders rapes and steals without empathy. Which factually speaking isn’t true at all. But that’s how they see us. Like the only reason they, a christian, aren’t doing these things is the threat of hell, and the dangling carrot of heaven.
You raise your kids to realize that they’re not rich, so consequences do exist for them.
But what if OP was rich tho? 🤔
The entire concept that something is right or wrong only if there is a consequence is everything that’s fucking wrong with the world right now.
We need to teach our children, and ourselves, that doing the right thing always matters despite or in spite of a lack of consequence.
Seems like the world has moved away from that
Assuming that the world was once just, and recently changed to become unjust, is completely flawed. History provides endless examples of people with power and money doing horrible things and facing little or no consequences.
