Thursday, March 29, 2007

honesty and integrity

******edit/addition******* Please tell me what you think in the comments... I am genuinely curious ...
_______________________________________________________

See Chico's comments on the movie here (very bad boy):
http://helmetwearingwindowlicker.blogspot.com/2007/03/political-correctness-can-bite-my-ass.html
_______________________________________________________

nurture vs. nature

as in ...

for me: is it my nature to be 'sensitive' ... 'sensitive' in the good way and/or overly 'sensitive' in the bad way ...

or good deeds/bad deeds?

My question of the day:

Is one born good (or bad) as the case may be?

This question stems from watching Blood Diamond last night.

I watched just over half of it. My heart was pounding so fast and the tears were threatening to break away and I just wasn't enjoying it. I am sensitive. Dammit. It kills me to think of the atrocities that human beings inflict on one another and it amazes me to see what one can live through, survive, pull themselves and their families through and move forward and live in the face of events that one would not want to live through. It shames me to think of the things I claim to not be able to handle in my own life. Do any of us know know real tragedy, pain or loss? In the truest sense?

My point/question stems from this scenario in the movie:

Leonardo's character: "Just tell them you are the cameraman and they will let you on the plane."

Djimon Housoun's character: "I cannot."

L: "Why"

D: "Because I am not a cameraman."

Simple. He cannot say it because it is a lie. It doesn't matter that it was for all the right reasons, for the greater good... he ends up doing it but is genuinely confounded by the idea of the simple lie.

Was this man and others like him born this way? Was this honest way of living created through his belief system, the way he was brought up or incidents in his life that made him choose to be good???

In quite the opposite scenario does someone who does the wrong thing choose wrong or is it as simple as it being in your nature to act one way or another? Are the good ones, just choosing to be good and therefore their instincts, or the first thoughts in their minds not naturally leaning in the right direction?? Do they do good because they choose too?

I really wish I hadn't started thinking about this... too many questions. Lets just go back to the Victoria's Secret supermodels instead! =)

6 comments:

MARFSBABY said...

Why do deep subjects always make me wanna run flailing?

Anonymous said...

ms. nerd,

i am going to predicate what i say by saying straight out that i could come across as preachy. now i am not intending to come across as preachy in that i obsess about this sort of thing constantly (too many ethics/morality courses) so i feel a need to express myself but also because i wish to show off because i find you to be uberly sort of... well... i'm not going to say being that this is a semi-public forum and i can be shy... sometimes.

ok! here we go:

what this scene demonstrates here is a convergence of a couple of ethical theories namely the biggies: kant's 'categorical imperatives' and mill's 'utilitarian' argument. see, categorically, we know that to lie is to screw up the world(kant) whereas a lot of good can come to the world via lying (mill). and morally, we know that no human being, whether it be our loved ones or the 'others' (people we don't know) deserves to suffer. one mode of thinking is concerned about the cogs that make the world go around (objective/ethical forces) and the other is about our very individual beings (subjective/moral forces). anyway, when these two very logical, very intrinsic patterns which we use to make decisions seem to have a frikken head-on collision, we freak out.

*sigh* see, D sees how his actions not only affect himself but can actually trick the rest of us into thinking that the 'problem' is not systemic but only has his face (which is maybe one reason why this scene is in the movie). if he decided to lie, which is perfectly moral, and got on the plane, we'd all be at least alleviated of our collective responsibility that we have for his situation in the first place. if he stays, the onus is still on him, on us. yeah... i'd rather him lie for my sake just as much as his, ya know? but, alas, he has simply aligned himself with the 'greater' rather than his own person as a separate entity. he made an ethical choice. he has aligned himself with the lie-will-screw-everything-up ethic.

now for the choice thing. it can be demonstrated (through all kinds of crazy experiments) that it is a part of our nature to act collectively just as much as it is to act for our individual betterment. the collectivity, thus far, is, of course, limited and inspired by who we have become attached to (family, friends). the problem is that today, the collectivity is beyond our family, our nations, our social norms as our actions affect the entire planet. problem? our ability to affect the 'other' ie. who seems outside (but, now, because of globalization etc) is really apart of our group, has superceded our ability to recognize the 'others' veracioius and proven inclusion. ie. we have only known about ppl outside of our family/friends for about the last five hundred years--a fraction of the time it would take to 'evolve' into transnational 'collective' thinking. really, it takes a lot to understand, comprehend, FEEL, then ACT on the fact that there are little kids starving to death all over the place. it is just really new information.

so choice? very much so. an easy one. not in the least.

ok, my $0.02. lordy, i hope this makes some sense.

~s

Anonymous said...

Baby, don't worry about the big huge things you have no control over. You are a good person, you treat others with respect, and you are always finding ways to help those in need. If everyone in the world did as much as you do, then no one would be freaking out.
B

KellyNerd said...

Dear ~s.

email me ok?

Dear B

Thanks for the lovely comment, you made my day... =)

Anonymous said...

ok but first things first:

*eyes narrow*

am i in trouble?

and like

how do i email you (yes dumb question probably).

~s

KellyNerd said...

=) no... just liked what you wrote and you said you were shy ...

kellynerdgirl@hotmail.com