When you are faced with a moral dilemma, why do you do the right thing? Have you ever questioned yourself? You get really irritated, but you still do the right thing.
For instance, the other day, I went to the store, and I bought quite a few things, and I got home, and I realized that the clerk hadn’t charged me for one item. And I said to myself, come on, Leon, it’s just one item. It’s a big store.
They’ll never, ever, ever miss it. So, that’s fine. I pacified myself.
I went to sleep, couldn’t sleep properly, got up the next day and went to the store. I was almost late for work. I was really irritated with myself, but I just had to do the right thing.
And I think all of us are the same, right? When we’re looking at a million dollars, a million dollars right in front of us, and we want to steal it and run away, we pick it up and we take it to the police, because we must do the right thing.
And this is the same thing with human interactions, isn’t it? Sometimes you just don’t want to help people. You really don’t.
You’re tired, you’re grouchy, but they ask for your help. And so you get up, and you go and help them. You do the right thing.
And I think this is a natural trait in human beings, isn’t it? Because all of us are aspiring for excellence in life, or at least we should be.
And excellence requires that we do the right thing, morally, philosophically, spiritually, even physically, we want to do the right thing. And this has a very, very long pedigree.
And if you go back to someone like Socrates, for instance, he believed that we couldn’t do a wrong thing. Say what? Yes, that’s true.
He actually believed that when I did an action, it was actually, in my mind, it was a good action. And of course, later I would realize, I suppose, like if I’m stealing something, stealing money or whatever it is, it was a bad action.
But at the time, I believed it was a good action.
And you think to yourself, actually, all the people that steal, and I’ve been stolen from in Europe before and other places, you know, I always think to myself, when the person is obviously stealing my books or my wallet or my bag, my money, at the
time, they probably are thinking, I’m going to do some good with this. There’s just not the impulse of evil, is there? Not really. And it goes on.
Plato, of course, Socrates’ student, he believed that it was actually going to disrupt harmony. The world as he saw it was in a harmonious state. And it really runs on.
I guess he could even mention that Aristotle, of course, also, the three of them, so we have Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle is the man who bases life on flourishing.
He, for instance, believed that all of us could be happy, potentially, but it was a process, because he believed in flourishing, I think closer to contentment, in my way of understanding. And it really runs on, doesn’t it?
But if you think to yourself, if all actions, like what would you do in the case of some horrible thing, like let’s say, for instance, there was violence being committed, right in front of you. Your natural tendency, of course, is to run away.
But you know that you have to stand there and be a little bit brave, because you have to do the right thing.
Now, if you actually take it even further and you extend it to your life, when you reach consciousness at 20 years of age or so, you realize that with your piece of life, you have to do the right thing.
So you have to try and find your mission, whatever it is, and have that mission unfold, because it is a necessary component of finding who you are and what you should do with this piece of life.
And I think if all of us began to consider this as a serious issue, philosophical issue even, that we must do the right thing, first of all, with me, relative to society, then my do the right thing relative to God, Gaia or the universe, my mission in
life. And then do the right thing with our social interaction, as much as possible on a daily basis. And in this way, ultimately, we will make the world a better place.
Because I guess, do the right thing means to act morally, at least attempt to act morally as often as you can. Now, we have many examples, of course, now, TikTok and otherwise, that people are doing some really horrible things, right?
And they’re obviously not acting at all in the right way. They’re not doing the right thing. You know, people that are perhaps selling their bodies, pornography, whatever it is.
No way! This is not the right thing. War, violence, not the right thing.
But once again, the person I can change is me, obviously. So, if I act in a moral way, if I do the right thing, then I will obviously influence other people because they will see me acting.
And this is true with my friends, my family, and ultimately my students and society. Right? So, I think this is an important phenomenon to consider.
So, always do the right thing as much as you possibly can. Right? Always do the right thing.
Always. And you know what they say? You know what they say?
Critical thinking is excellent, especially when you’re going to do the right thing. Right? And critical thinking is great.
Truly great. You take care. God bless.
Bye-bye.