Tag Archives: Morality

Righteous action – subtleties in moral scales

Mediation, Musings, , , , , , ,   4 comments  

In crafting my story “featherweight soul” (part of Scales of Osiris), one dilemma is how to depict the celestial and terrestrial moral landscape [4]. Myth & history have both realms conflicted, with personified undercurrents and agentic misalignment.

What really matters when push comes to shove? Who matters? What autonomy do Osiris’ terrestrial operatives have? What are the rules of engagement? What risks are acceptable? Are there second chances?

So, imagine “boiling down” a moral code – all the do’s & don’ts and heuristics – into 3 laws à la Asimov’s Laws. Basically a framework for duty of care: harmless purpose, harmless alignment, self-protection.

Yet, what are the Laws’ subtleties? – built-in assumptions, ambiguities, and loopholes?

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Balancing of the books – just deserts

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[Draft 4-12-2026]

Moral inferences & influencers

The other day at my gym, I got into a conversation about a media influencer who talked about how some contemporary despots did really bad things, but also improved the lot of others. Or how famous, honored activists (or celebrities) did some really good things, but kept secret some really bad things. Is such moral duplicity anything new under the sun? Like the “pitchfork effect.” Or “halo effect” (especially for priests).

The implication was some sort of tally of debits & credits. So that moral worthiness depends on a good enough moral “batting” average. Or that there’s adequate majority merit, like 51% good and 49% evil.

This struck me as “moral accounting,” which historically the Church rejected. Such accounting encouraged some to literally try to buy their way into heaven (indulgences) – much like compensatory carbon credits. Or, even trade or transfer (loan) merit (to get around that “eye of a needle” thing). And perpetuated the notion that great wealth is a sign of social superiority and spiritual merit.

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‘Politics is about sacredness’ – overlapping moral orbits

Mediation, Musings, Stories, , , ,   2 comments  

Fables were part of the moral fabric when I was growing up. Perhaps yours as well. Especially some of Aesop’s Fables. (Yet, I was suprised that this was not the case for many of my middle school students, when a public school teacher.)

There’s one fable, in particular, which social psychologist Jonathan Haidt discussed in a 2012 interview (noted below) about his latest book (at that time): Aesop’s The Ant and the Grasshopper.

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