Inspiring on two levels, this article by David Mitchell in the Guardian was both brilliantly written and raised some really interesting points.
Not about the card game bridge, but about honesty. You can extrapolate that to the age old good and bad decisions and actions. I’d like to think that when a moral decision is called for I choose good because it is the right thing to do. But is that really true – I don’t know that I’ve really been tested in that respect. And what about everyone else? Putting aside those that make the ‘bad’ choices, do people do the right thing for moral reasons, or because they don’t want to deal with the guilt, or because they fear discovery and punishment (or divine judgement).
“The rare occasions when I’ve broken
rules or laws led to traumatic breaches in my peace of mind. It’s a frailty of gumption that, luckily for me, shares the symptoms of a moral compass.”
That’s an honest and humble opinion by David Mitchell and I suspect this would apply to more of us than would readily admit it. Perhaps it is about evolution, we couldn’t live in such busy and highly populated societies if everyone made the decisions that only favoured themselves, taking no heed of consequences for others. David has a much better way of saying that though:
“Honesty is very convenient – and that’s probably why most of us are mostly honest most of the time. Society functions more smoothly if the statistical risk of being misinformed, robbed, ripped off or murdered in any given situation remains low. The fact that most people realise this is a felicitous confluence of common sense and laziness – as much a victory of apathy over enterprise as it is of righteousness over sin.”
All good thought provoking stuff to inspire writers….
CLIVE ANTHONY 