Skip to main content

Rule No.66 - Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right


Morals are taught to us by our parents, guardians, teachers and elders. They are concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct, distinction between right and wrong.

Gandhi's brand of civil resistance is built around this quote. It's okay to break the rules as long as you do it non-violently, the rule is unjust, and are willing to accept the consequences. Another example of this rule is all the people that who hid or otherwise helped Jews during World War II. In the US military, you can get away with breaking the rules to do the right thing provided that you have a legitimate excuse and someone in a position of authority believes you.

Similar to the Jewish rules, Islam also has exceptions in order to save someone, including oneself. For instance, eating pork is perfectly acceptable if no other food is available in an emergency. Human is not actually on the list of food prohibitions, in dire situations (though if you murder someone to eat them because you're starving, you are on the bad list). Various denominations of Christianity also permit this in dire situations (the human thing, not the pork, because pork is not a prohibited food for most Christians).

All examples, some a little more hectic than the others, are when you need to put your morals aside to do what is right. Sometimes it is easy to not do the right thing and then blame your morals that you were taught. We have curve balls thrown at us daily, testing our morals and ethics but sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture and think what the right thing would be to do. Imagine if Ghandi never did anything because it was morally incorrect, or no-one helped the Jewish people during the war. There are millions of examples of times when someone has gone against their morals but knew they were doing the right thing instead and thank goodness for that.

So next time you need to choose between morals and the right thing, remember to the right thing is always the answer.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rule No.33 - Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day

Okay, rules are back and what a classic one! This quote is by Harry S Truman. He was the 33 rd president of America, historians call him “a controversial president”, the band Chicago wrote a song just for him and he has a commemorative holiday in his name on the 8 th May in Missouri. This is brilliant advise, not in the literal sense, well, that too, but if you having a seriously bad day, don’t make things worse by deliberately doing something that will bite you in the bum later. I did this the other day, so I am talking out of experience here. I went into a situation and then on the way out, after realising it was a bad situation, I kicked a fresh turd cause I was so mad. (again, not literally, although, that might have been a better idea in hindsight) My advise in this circumstance is to stay indoors that day until you have calmed yourself down. I’ll leave you with another quote from Truman : A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who

Rule No. 76 – Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

I was on a plane last night on my way home and after my original idea of having a really awesome nap after two extremely tough weeks being completely thrown aside thanks to my hard of hearing peeps behind me that thought it necessary to use their fists on the tray to make a point, and they had a LOT of points, while bashing my chair at the same time, i decided what better time to think about this rule instead. Use my time productively. Then, somewhere between my eyes rolling back in exhaustion and semi consciousness, i looked over to the other row and there was a lady with her wallet on her lap, sorting out her slips, throwing away her bank statements. Brilliant. Seriously though, why would you want to keep them? We all do, just in case we need it for something, but when have you ever really needed them?These days they give you the option if you want to print out the receipt or not. Do yourself and the tree's a favour and just say no. Sorted. Now love letters. Aaah, love letters. I

Rule No. 144 - Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

To be rash is to act   too   hastily   or   without   due   consideration. That's the official meaning and also how I have made most decisions in my life. Luckily though a lot of those have turned out okay but that i believe is pure luck and some amazing angels watching over me. In the same breath, a couple of those decisions have pretty useless and self destructive.  Taking risks only came "later" in life, but after the first big risk, I was hooked. Making calculated ones didn't come naturally though and once your first rash decision turns out to be the best risk of your life, it's hard to kick the habit. So this rule is something I need to work on and will do my best to implement into my life so that I don't repeat some of the really idiotic rash decisions I have made, especially with regards to matters of the heart.  A calculated risk needs forethought, weighing outcomes and at the same time avoiding stupid actions. What you need to ask yourself first