I am slowly realizing that the Purity/Sanctity moral framework is the literary curtain of OZ.
I first became aware of this elusive obvious issue when I read Freakonomics and they statistically uncovered the high rates of cheating in sumo wrestling. Sumo wrestling has a high level of purity/sanctity associated with it and so to even question the honor of the athletes or the institutions that it embodies is a type of amoral thought (i.e. sin). Of course this curtain of purity/sanctity is designed to have power over people.
The players have social and finical incentives to keep the status quo going. The sumo institution does as well. And the fans of the sport, self sensor any skeptical ideas for fear of being ostracized by their society. So who care’s about sumo wrestling… good question. It’s not something I think about much. That said, I started to look at all institutions that make claims of purity/sanctity and almost without fail, I see very unethical things going on.
Here are a few examples:
1) The NCAA and its idea of “amateur” athletes. See “Schooled: The Price of College Sports” for an in-depth look at the unethical “rules” that make indentured servants out of college athletes. Watch this film with an ethical lens and ask yourself, “How would I like it if that was done to me?” Place this in terms of harm/care and fairness/reciprocity. See how those benefiting from the unethical climate justify their spoils through appeals to purity/sanctity.
2) The U.S. political system & current economic structure. See “Park Avenue: Money, Politics, and the American Dream” This is one of the best documentaries I have seen that does a good job of illustrating the devolution of the American political system and structures of mobility. It’s truly amazing how entitled those on top are and how they appeal to notions of purity/sanctity to defend their spoils. In addition, they warp notions of fairness/reciprocity with false premise arguments. As the simple skewed monopoly study illustrates well, the idea that everyone starts off with equal opportunities to succeed is crazy. This reality alone is enough to make us question much of the status quo.
While an individual can with extreme effort increase their lot in life, effort is not always a determining factor. For the vast majority of those born in poverty, they can quickly become the preverbal rat in a cage who received shocks with no means of controlling the shocks. Eventually this rat will become apathetic. Even if the rat somehow maintains energy and hope, as the rigged monopoly game shows, he’s not going to win the game.
When you are done watching that, watch the Frontline documentary, “Two American Families” This documentary shows the impact of the “Shrink-to-Grow” corporate strategy, the “free trade agreements”, the weakening of union power, and the disastrous effects of not having a minimum wage tied to inflation.
3) The Catholic Church. Concepts of purity/sanctity are almost thought to be the exclusive domain of religion, even though there are countless other examples. The Catholic Priest is an interesting entity. It’s a quasi-demi-god role, its a role that forces human males to be celibate, not to have a family, and exist in a isolated and lonely existence. They are presented as unquestionable authority figures to entire communities; not to mention their complete authority over little boys – the alter boys. Women, typically a dampening factor on all bad male behaviors are given very few roles in the church.
If you look at the world through a topsy turvy lens, you might ask the question, “how does one institution rack up over 100,000 instances of child abuse?” “How is it this same institution has this same problem worldwide?”
Many people think gay men who are conflicted about their sexual identity try to avoid it and do so via repression by entering the priesthood, which turns them into pedophilies. Of course there is a simpler idea, maybe pedophilies are attached to the church because it is custom built to allow them to do what they want to do with impunity. You quite literally could not design a better institution than the Catholic church for a pedophile. If you consider that, and let it sink in; it’s quite possible this “epidemic” of pedophilia is a fundamental design of the Catholic priesthood that dates back as far as the rules around celibacy for the clergy.
4) The U.S. legal system The U.S. legal system is one set of rules after the other. There are procedures for procedures. All of these legal procedures are designed to give the legal system an appearance of impartiality and a guise of justice. Justice, in the conventional sense deals with ethical considerations of harm/care and fairness/reciprocity. It is rarely considered during a legal trail. Lawyers and judges (typically former lawyers) are trained to eliminate ethical concerns from their considerations and especially from their legal arguments.
Legal arguments have devolved into a pure focus on legal chess. Lawyers must reference legal laws and precedence to out play their opponents. Judges feel constrained by, and self sensor their judgements based on existing law. This creates a vicious cycle for those caught-up in legal debates about “wicked laws”. Wicked laws are laws that by definition, by enforcement, or by intent inherently unethical. If you have to appeal to the law to defend yourself, and if the existing laws are not questioned by judges, then a wicked law creates a vicious cycle. The only appeal you can make to fight such a law is a constitutional appeal, which is really an appeal to a fundamental ethical argument but because fundamental ethical arguments don’t reference existing laws, lawyers have to stretch into contortions to tie ethical arguments back to any referable constitutional language that supports a basic ethical argument. A system of justice that can not accept a direct ethical argument is a broken system of justice, which is what we currently have.
Lawyers, judges, and police officers who have drank the Cool-Aid believe the legal system is just and they will point to the purity/sanctity of the institution. Most people uninitiated to the legal system will hear those appeals and nod in agreement. Those in the know, and anyone who has experienced the legal system first hand knows better. The current system is rigged to allow the person with the deepest pockets to drag on a court case until the other party runs out of money or has to let their case go so they can go on living their lives without closure.
Conclusion. If someone is making a purity/sanctity argument, they need further scrutiny. I think you will find a high correlation of unethical behavior behind most of these curtains. If they are so pure, they should not be afraid of a little light. Don’t let those in moral authority wave their hands and use their jedi-like mind tricks of purity/sanctity on you.
Many of our trusted institutions have devolved into lower states. This doesn’t not mean that the foundation of the institution is fundamentally flawed, but it does mean that they may need a complete overhaul. If there is enough decay, you may have to tear the structure down to the studs and rebuild.
Most of the seemingly intractable institutional and systemic problems have somewhat simple solutions. The hard part is to get individuals to be less apathetic and start to care. The rich and powerful are getting richer and more powerful but the level of consolidation is unbelievable. There are way more of us than there are of them. So we need to organize around a few key principles. I recommend a new school of thought.
Etho-liberal. An etho-liberal would be someone who understands how to derive ethical truth in any circumstance; and who is liberal enough to question themselves and their culture using ethical understanding to improve themselves and their culture.
I think we should start Etho-Liberal meetings to replace a few institutions (Religions and Political Parties) with the goal of educating our people on ethics & civics so that we can rebuild our institutions through group efforts founded on ethical principles.
Historically, political parties organized through churches, other civil organizations like the Rotary Club, 4-H, and business groups like the Chamber of Commerce, etc.. Churches are a place people come together once a week and shared common memes about the world. They are prime organizations that can execute grass roots campaigns.
The secular individual in the U.S. is too fragmented to organized. An Etho-Liberal weekly meetings could take the place of a weekly church visit. People would be encouraged to attend in person but could attend and engage virtually. It would be a place of learning for adults and kids.
If this idea grew, it would enable large scale grass roots political action. We could rebuild our failing institutions. There has never been a time that it is easier to organize. Let’s leave this world better than we found it.