5/28/07
Moral Ambiguity
You encounter a lot of new things at college. Middlebury in particular promotes diversity and the value of difference, be it racial, religious, socioeconomic, or simply a difference of opinions. I've run into all these in my nine months at Midd, and for the most part I've appreciated the new perspectives and ideas I got out of such encounters. But a few things have occurred that caused me to stop and wonder: at what point are you allowed to stop appreciating ideas that differ from your own? Do I have to accept a diversity of values and moral standards? Are right and wrong really relative? (If you think I'm going to answer this question in one blog post, you're going to be sadly disappointed.) In theory, I think it's fine for people to have personally defined moral codes. In practice, I hate it when people do things that I consider wrong. It's a different sort of discomfort than when I'm confronted with an opinion that disagrees with my own. Opinions aren't necessarily fundamental; I consider them more thoughts than feelings. My most basic values aren't going anywhere, and I'm not sure I could explain all of them rationally. There are things I do and things I don't do. (Anyone read Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga? It plays with that question quite a bit.) So while I'm all for my opinions and ideas being broadened by diversity, I don't consider it necessary or even right for my values to be "broadened" or changed. Does that make me close-minded?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
First post in awhile, good see you back and blogging.
ReplyDeleteI guess, no, it doesn't make you close-minded to consider it necessary for your values to be permanently changed. Your values are your values. But I believe it is close-minded if you do never try and experiment with other values, ideas, thoughts. You are doing yourself a disservice to not constantly question and evaluate your values. I see values less as defined hard-and-fast and more as ever-changing. Diversity is not meant to change you. It's meant to expose you to something new which you can take or leave. It's up to your what you adopt into your own habit.
Hallie bebe, we posted independently and just hours apart. Great minds, my dear, great minds. That being said, I have to agree with Mr. Kellett, and emphasize that being attached to your own sense of morality/ perspective is not close-minded unless it causes you to dismiss other opinions without consideration. Challenging someone else's beliefs by propounding your own is not being close-minded, in fact it is very open-minded, so long as you allow a dialogue instead of a tirade. You can listen respectfully and intelligently to someone express an idea you completely disagree with and you will only be enriched for having heard them, whether it ends up altering your state of mind or strongly reinforcing your already held beliefs. Nice post, keep up the good work, blog buddy.
ReplyDelete