Why are people immoral?

[tnunamak]

What is it about some people (or human nature) that makes them inclined to be immoral? Pleasure? Discomfort from doing the right thing?

What are your thoughts?

[DavidOdden]

What is it about some people (or human nature) that makes them inclined to be immoral?

Usually, weakness, especially the inability to take the long-term perspective.

[khaight]

What is it about some people (or human nature) that makes them inclined to be immoral? Pleasure? Discomfort from doing the right thing?

What are your thoughts?

Typically the desire to obtain some goal for less effort. Why work to earn money if you think that stealing it is more efficient? Why risk a fight with a friend by telling an uncomfortable truth when lying is so much easier? Etc. Lacking a principled view of morality, it is easy to overlook the full consequences of immoral behavior -- and in the short term immorality can seem to work. If you steal a car, you have it *now* -- and the negative consequences are psychologically nebulous and in the future.

Also, what standard of morality are you using in your question? The Objectivist one, or a more mixed 'conventional' one? People whose views of moral behavior are altruistic are impelled to be 'immoral' by the requirements of their own lives.

[tnunamak]

Also, what standard of morality are you using in your question?

The correct one

[aequalsa]

What is it about some people (or human nature) that makes them inclined to be immoral? Pleasure? Discomfort from doing the right thing?

What are your thoughts?

My experience has been that a combination of evasion, laziness, and short-sighted thinking are the usual, primary culprits. Ultimately, the right answer might be bad philosophy, but most people(especially bad ones) operate on a predominately emotional plane. As such, the things I listed seem to be the more immediate causes.

[Dismuke]

Ultimately, the right answer might be bad philosophy, but most people(especially bad ones) operate on a predominately emotional plane. As such, the things I listed seem to be the more immediate causes.

I think you are definitely correct that the right answer is ultimately philosophy. The way I would put it is the lack of a proper moral eduction when a person is young can play a huge role in many instances. What a strong moral education can do is help counter those more "immediate causes."

All of the examples given of short-term emotion based thinking have a certain appeal to people - they tempt one with a "shortcut." And the fact that attempted shortcuts will, in the long run, lead to one's own self destruction is not something which is self-evident. That is something each and every human being must either discover or learn. The problem is that such a process of discovery requires a mind that is active and reflects on the cause and consequences of its own behaviors - and since a great many people do not engage in such mental activity, an entire lifetime of evidence might pass in front of them in very painful ways and it still won't "click." Learning such things based on the experience of others through a decent moral education, however, can speed the process up. But that presupposes that such an eduction can even be had.

The danger for young people who do not discover the true nature of such shortcuts is that the behavior will eventually become automatized and second nature to them. When reality does slap them in the face with evidence of the destructive nature of their ways - well, that is very uncomfortable to have to deal with and, based on their habits, they will most likely evade it. When they observe people who have become successful without taking such shortcuts - well, that, too, is something they must evade, usually in the form of hostility towards the successful person. As a result, over the long term, the person is no longer someone who is merely attempting to take a little random shortcut here and there - he becomes immoral on principle.

Because we have volition, morality is ultimately a matter up to each individual. The very best moral eduction in the world is no guarantee that any given recipient will lead a moral life. And there have been plenty of individuals who have been brought up by and around the very worst sort of scumbags who have, nevertheless, become morally heroic. What a good moral eduction can do, however, is help catch and save a good many of those somewhere in the middle who, if left to their own devices, could just as easily go one way as another.

Above all, a good moral education can help a young person resist peer pressure which, more often than not, is going to be in directions less than positive. In today's profoundly nihilistic post counterculture popular culture, the very worst sorts of behavior and mindsets are not just looked at with a blind eye - they are glorified. Those who advocate leading a decent and moral life are sneered at and denounced by the trendy as "uncool" "square" and "oppressive." To be "cool" in today's popular culture all too often means to be a nihilistic whim worshiper. Unless a child happens to be lucky enough to fall into a decent lot of people, that is likely the message that he will hear over and over again from his conformist, tribal peers who will withhold their approval if he fails to go along. In a better culture, it would be self-destructive behavior that would constitute grounds for alienation from his peers which would serve to reinforce his previous moral education. In a better culture, hippies, nihilists and most of today's popular musicians and movie star types would be regarded as freaks and the exact opposite of "cool" and "hip."

In today's world, if a child is fortunate, he will be born into a family with loving parents who have a decent sense of life and who care about their child's future more than they care about following pop culture trends, including various child rearing fads. They will give him a "common sense" sort of moral eduction. Such an education may have its shortcomings but at least offers some sort of guidance and direction to counter the constant whim warship and nihilism the child will inevitably be confronted with. A child who is brought up to recognize that he is important and that his life is a value in the most profound and sacred sort of way will be much more likely to care about the long term and see through, resist and reject the various shortcuts and self-loathing messages that life and the popular culture will put in front of him.

Edited July 29, 2006 by Dismuke