What Does Being a Morally Good Person Look Like?

I think it is important that people do their research on whatever topic they are wanting to study. Whether you're researching a topic out of pure curiosity, to become more educated, or for the sole purpose of completing a project and getting it over with so you can get a good grade... which may or may not be what I've done in the past ☺. Take for example my interest in the subject of morality and how that (is supposed to) play a role in society today. At first, I discovered a few nuggets of information that allowed me to create several opinions about how morality should be incorporated into society. However, very quickly, I ran out of ideas to discover. Everything I stumbled upon was either something I had already come to the conclusion of or repetitive information that was similar to a recent idea. However, eventually, one train of thought I found caught my eye. 

Joseph Butler was an English theologian who is for his positive arguments that self-love and conscience are not at odds if properly understood while also criticizing theories associated with Hobbes and Bernard Mandeville. After further digging, I found that his contributions to the realm of psychology and theological discussion were valuable to my focus project. For instance, one of his quotes goes as followed, "Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so." I initially did not understand the deeper meaning of what Butler was saying, so I continued doing research. I found a TedTalk that explained the steps into becoming a morally good person, who just so happened to base his train of thought on Butler's theory. Michael Stueben uses Thomas Jefferson to further demonstrate the quote. He discusses how Thomas Jefferson is known for his contributions to important American documents, especially the world-renown quote in the Declaration of Independence, "all men are created equal". However, he then brings up the fact that despite this, Jefferson was a slave owner, which contradicts the quote he penned completely. How could a man that owned slaves also advocate for equality? 

At the end of the segment, Stueben discusses that because of the numerous things Jefferson did to birth a nation independent from a terrible tyranny, we stopped caring about his inappropriate actions at the time. After reflecting upon this statement, I came to the understanding that alone could solve the problems in society today. In our modern culture, people, including myself, focus on the negatives in life and don't see anything else. If we make a bad grade, that's all we think about the following days. In a broader sense, however, if someone slips up and does or says something that her/his peers do not agree with, he/she has that lingering over them forever. They purposely choose to hold a grudge against them.

This leads to the most intriguing thing Stueben said in his TedTalk - which is the idea that I will be taking forward as I begin to finalize my focus project - "If you're going to attempt to live a moral life, you have to accept the disadvantages that come along with it. People can lie to you. but you can't lie to them People can cheat you but you can't cheat them. People can manipulate you to their advantage but you can't do the same" Becoming a person that is morally good is already a difficult feat. However, when taking the quote into consideration, our civil responsibility seems to weigh more than it already did. You can't conform to the people around you if you are dedicated to sticking to a certain life path. If you choose to be a vegetarian, what's the point in choosing that lifestyle if you eat the same food like almost everybody else? As a moral person, standing up for what is morally correct (or what is supposed to be) is difficult, especially when a different belief is held by a large group of people. Ultimately, however, by remaining consistent in your moral beliefs both similar and diverse groups can come together and encourage one another in their moral walk.