The human species is complicated, and college is where it starts getting really messy. We’re no longer under our parents’ wings, and we start thinking for ourselves more.
And we also start to learn there is evident hypocrisy in the world.
We argue that the life of a fetus is precious and worth protecting, but once that fetus is born, we pay it $7.25 an hour and deny it health insurance because it could cost a little more for everyone else.
We argue that rape is wrong, but have no problem telling people how and when we should be having sex or shaming them for having sex outside of our constraints.
These examples are situations in which we are hypocrites. There are also times when we exhibit our limits. And every human being has different limits.
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “You have your way, and I have mine. And no way is the right way.”
There is no universal way to live your life. Anyone who argues against this is standing with their back to the rest of the world and proclaiming enlightenment that makes them the 1% and negates the 99%.
Yes, the majority of people would agree that killing someone is wrong. But there is a lot of fine print on that statement.
Should the victim of an abusive spouse allow their spouse to beat them, in order for her actions to be morally justified?
Should the world have sat back and let Hitler kill millions more, because we couldn’t have any blood on our hands and still be morally justified?
No, of course not.
What I’m talking about is moral relativism, which is the argument that several truths can exist at the same time.
Morality is not the ultimate truth. We define morality as the behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable to do.
You can be taught anything is right or anything is wrong. But there is an inkling in the consciousness that develops with experiences.
That inkling is where we develop morals.
Morality is relative because it is individualistic.
We have a court system because we have to figure out how the rules (read: truths) of our nation apply to individual circumstances.
A child does not have the same level of understanding the world as an adult does. This is why we have separate trials for children and adults who have committed the same crime.
Our court systems judge how morally corrupt a persons actions were, and decide the punishments accordingly.
Even then, a 16-year-old who shoots his abusive step father would not be given the same punishment as a 16-year-old who shoots his ex-girlfriend.
However, in each circumstance, one human kills another.
At face value, the two situations are the same. But generalities don’t apply to humans, because we are much more complex than any overarching ideal can describe.
Morality is not a blanket which covers the human population as a whole, but rather a seed that is given to each of us. Our experiences are what water and sun give to the seed.
No one has any grounds to tell anyone that their personal ideas are wrong.
The world is not black and white. The truth is not black and white, either.
But it also isn’t gray.
The world is full of an entire spectrum of colors. And no color is better or more correct than any of the others.
Some colors complement each other, and we call that a culture — groups of people who come together under similar values and morals. But they do so based on their view of the world.
It is up to us, as individuals, to look at those colors and see them for what they are, and to recognize each for what it is — a color.
Just because you don’t feel comfortable in the color blue doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work well in my color palette.
Jana King is a 19-year-old women’s and gender studies sophomore from Ponchatoula, La.