In my previous article In my previous article I explained how Brad Blanton's model of the human mind could guide us in our perception of the world. In this article, I will introduce moralism... moralism, which stems from a general tendency to rely too much on one's representation of the world and not enough on one's direct experience of the world. Moralism is a harmful way of thinking.
Moralism, a socially encouraged vice
Blanton dedicates a good part of his work to criticising moralism. According to him, this is the greatest obstacle to leading a serene life, and it is an extremely contagious thought.
To suffer from moralism is to respect a rule or a principle without taking into account one's experience of the world.
I guess a good half of my readers probably don't agree with this. Indeed, I am indirectly encouraging people not to blindly respect an authority, and respect for authority is one of the pillar values of conservatives, according to Jonathan Haidt..
But ever since I became aware of this disease, I see moralism everywhere. It is encouraged and instilled by society.
The problem is that the people who are most affected by moralism are more successful. Alain Deneault calls it 'mediocracy ': we live in a society where success is determined by our ability to understand the rules of the circle in which we want to succeed and to respect those rules. For example, a politician succeeds not because he has conducted effective policies (his work is not even evaluated), but because he understands and respects the rules of his party (not openly questioning the leader, defending the same program, becoming influential...). And this principle is true in all social structures.
In our society, questioning the rules is a losing strategy.For example, the whistleblower employee who filmed himself dumping used acid into the environment will not have a brilliant career at Arcelor Mittal, he is even ruined.He contributed to the common good by exposing the wrongdoing of the company that employed him, but because the company is a mediocracy, he lost his job. There are countless examples in the corporatist, scientific, military world of individuals who have been punished by the group after having done something that contributed to the common good (journalists, politicians, whistleblowers, unions, overly scrupulous researchers...) but perhaps temporarily damaged their structure.
Moreover, our education system (broadly the same as a century ago) contaminates us from a very young age. Children are taught to respect the rules imposed on them without questioning them.
Staying connected to your world experience, according to Blanton, means constantly re-evaluating your principles and decisions based on new information you acquire. A person who is sensitive to his or her world experience is open-minded and self-questioning. It is therefore a first step towards a life based on empirical theories of the world.
Are you affected by moralism?
Probably. I am. Jonathan Haidt, in his book The Righteous Mind, details how our moral values are embedded in us and push us to make decisions without us even realizing it. Take these two stories:
- A man goes to the supermarket and buys a chicken. He goes home, has sex with the chicken, then cooks it and eats it.
- A brother and sister go on holiday. One night they decide to have sex with each other. They feel like it, and think the experience will make them more intimate. Naturally, they take every possible precaution, and the sister did not get pregnant.
As you read these two stories, you have probably felt disagreement or disgust. It is more or less pronounced depending on the person. However, in both stories, no harm is done to anyone. It is our moral principles that take over and lead us to condemn these acts. Blanton encourages us to keep an open mind and not to judge these stories.
Moralism: A False Compass
Being moralist means closing your mind.
Recently I debated with someone about the public debt. I was explaining that economists believe that some of the public debt is illegitimate and that perhaps that illegitimate part should not be repaid. It is a complex issue and my opinion on it is not settled.
But my interlocutor's reaction is a classic case of acute moralism. He was angry and said, "How can you not pay back someone who lent you money? That's bullshit". And we had to cut the debate short.
Because of a hasty moral judgment, my interlocutor cut himself off from the possibility of discovering a new economic theory. Other people I know who are more open-minded would have asked me about this theory. Then, coldly, they would have made an informed opinion on the matter later.
It is this same principle that will push some people to dislike the unemployed, the breakers, the bosses, the strikers... Wrongly so.
Cutting oneself off from the moral judgments inculcated by society is the strength of the thinkers who are changing our society. Like Darwin who questions creationism although it was immoral, Galileo who claims that the earth is not the center of the solar system although it was immoral. Moreover, Thomas Piketty in Capital in the 21st Century gives a very good example of people considered wise who are in fact acute moralists. The Supreme Court of the United States first opposed an abolition of slavery and income tax, because at the time it was considered immoral.
I'm not saying that every rule imposed by society is bad, just that morality is not a valid argument for me. Even the abolition of the death penalty, for example, should not be justified by moral principles. It is an easy shortcut. For me, I am mainly against the death penalty because it frequently happens that innocent people are sentenced to death. Life sentence is therefore strictly superior in my view. Of course, I find it immoral for a state to kill its citizens. But that argument should not be taken into account.
More generally, moralism urges us to live according to a representation of the world and not according to our experience of the world. In life, Blanton explains that we construct our representation of the world during our childhood and adolescence and then live according to them, instead of constantly questioning them.
In this way, society imposes an ideal of life on us that we unconsciously incorporate.
In theory, I know that money doesn't make people happy, and that there's no point in pursuing more capital as long as you're financially secure. I have accumulated an enormous amount of data on this subject that has greatly increased my belief in this theory (empirical studies on the subject, work by Seneca, Thich Nhath Hanh, Sonja Lyubomirski, George Vaillant and a multitude of other sources).
And yet, I sometimes feel a slight temptation towards a rich life. It is my representation of the world that gives me this temptation. And this representation of the world has been constructed by the ocean of suggestions that I have perceived in my life on this subject: my parents, my teachers, my mentors, the media, advertising all lead me more or less directly back to a consumerist life.
Experiencing the world (becoming aware of the thoughts that arise on this subject and bringing me back to the empirical data on the subject) allows me to alleviate the symptoms of my moralism.
Moralism in decision making and its justification
In leadership, whether as a Scout leader or a teacher, I am also constantly confronted with this difference between moral principles and reality. Because young people do not hesitate to question the decisions we make.
But we must celebrate these challenges: they push us to be aware of our choices. I have the right to decide arbitrarily that this person will do the dishes tonight (to the Scouts, eh). But in this case, when the young person answers with a grumpy "But why?!", I must take the time to actively answer the question.
- "Look, I did it arbitrarily, because someone had to. I can't do the dishes because I have other things to take care of (better not lie there), and next time it probably won't be you."
Saying "because that's the way it is, I make the decisions here" is the worst insult you can make to someone you have authority over. It's passing on moralism. It's confirming that society is moralist, that one day he will be the moralizer and that he will then benefit from it and he will be able to pass on moralism to these young people.
But someone who actively chooses to disobey an unjust rule changes the world.
Moralism prevents us from growing up
Of course, sometimes we do not want to explain a decision to someone because it is dishonest. Maybe I always ask the same kid to do the dishes because I don't like him as much (It's not the case, huh). In fact, sometimes we hide behind moralism because we don't want to reveal our true intentions. And in that case we propagate moralism out of pettiness. Like a politician who uses empty rhetoric instead of admitting a mistake.
The problem is that then you fall prey to cognitive dissonance (I'll talk about this later, I promise). Cognitive dissonance is an extremely powerful cognitive bias that Caroll Tarvis discusses in detail in her wonderful book Mistakes were made.
A human being very rarely acknowledges that he has committed an immoral act. Therefore, when he commits an immoral act, he will tend to adjust these moral principles in such a way that, according to these new principles, the act committed will not be immoral.
For example, a police officer who placed false evidence at a crime scene (apparently a common phenomenon in the USA) will justify himself the first time to comfort himself: "I know that this person was guilty, he really must go to jail for the common good". The problem is that once he has committed this act once, he will be more likely to do it again because his moral principles will have been modified in this way. He will assess less and less the pros and cons of such an act.
That's also why I think it's impossible to change the system from within. I am sure that if I worked in a bank, after several years my moral principles would be changed.
Generally speaking, if one is a moralist, then one can no longer refine one's vision of the world. Little by little you lose your open-mindedness, which is the most important trait in my eyes. According to Brad Blanton, a moralist adult is actually a teenager. He's going to build his life on moral values that he's been instilled with rather than actually experiencing life to make his choices.
Apart from Brad Blanton's dubious estimate that a good half of his patients are adult teenagers who have never really experienced the world because of moralism.
Learning that a sizeable fraction of society is probably made up of teenagers frightened me, and I really hope that I am not one of them.