Moral science is a Joke?

“You should always speak the truth”
“Honesty is the best policy”
“Seeing something wrong and letting it happen is also wrong”

These were some of the quotes that were taught to me in my moral science class when I was in second standard called Class 2 as per Indian education system for the board of CBSE. I learnt them because my teacher told me to. Then out of some early experiences I tried to practice them but for a child at my age I could not really relate to what was being taught because I had no practical exposure at the time. It was a curriculum that we had to follow and pretty sure at that time the teachers emphasized on getting good score per subject so that I could qualify for the next class!

Funny thing… I learnt it well enough to pass the class but did I really learn to practice it?

Down came the era of movies for me. My awesome dad, he bought me a VCR (video cassette recorder) and he bought me a few tapes to watch, Hindi movies. I was allowed to rent a tape from the video store once a week. This was my opportunity to watch cartoons and some of the famous English movies of the sorts of Jumanji.

What is the context here? I implied my knowledge to the movies, where there was a character in the movie called a “Hero” and then there was a “Villain”, a typical characteristic representation of Good and Bad respectively. The Hero did all those things that were in my Moral science book or syllabus and the villain did all the things that we aren’t supposed to do.

This was my source for practical application. I want to give credit to my parents for doing their best to provide me an easy life. Keeping me away from problems or family responsibilities. They did a fine job.

But then, life happened. I grew up. I faced the real world. Oh boy, was I in for a surprise.

Life, in general or as I thought at a time is not Black and white. The things I learnt during the studies do not completely apply to the real world. There is a grey area where everything dwells. The matters of being right or wrong is judged by that moment. Things like, you can lie if it means a greater good for someone or you can harm others in lieu of self defense. You can choose to remain quiet because that will diffuse a certain situation.

These are some of the practical things that I am coming across now. I’ll share an example from real life. Obviously I am not going to disclose any names but just the incident.

I happen to own a Gynae and Obstetrics hospital that also happens to have a pediatrics unit and we meet all sorts of customers during the work hours. There was this one person who had his child admitted to pediatric ward and wanted to get a shot of some medicine. He was informed of the price and on his approval the shot was administered. Afterwards the bill was presented and he flatly refused to pay the bill as according to him that was not amount agreed upon. Then with all his might he started a fight with the doctors on duty. He cursed and threatened the staff for indulgence of police and specifically targeted the Doctor in charge saying that he would make sure that the police beats him properly in the worst way possible.

I was out of town at that moment when the incident took place but we have all of it on CCTV recordings.

So as any educated civilian would do and as per the moral science we have been taught we took a moral stand. How? By approaching the authorities namely the police. The police was supportive and they listened to our complaints and acted accordingly. They suggested a compromise and offered a peaceful talk solution which was actually acceptable at that time. Well, the other party did not connect.

I live in a very small city, its hardly 10 km in diameter and many people know each other from one source or another. And we also found the details about that person and how he was evading the police calls of compromise. Cant really disclose the stupid excuses he was making but he never responded to police calls.

Now comes the interesting part. As an organization or an institute and morally bound I should have made all possible events bring justice to our doctor who was harassed and threatened. But, we came to know about a plot from that guy. He was preparing a coo where he prepared someone from his family, potentially a female member to create a scene at the hospital and falsely accuse the doctor in charge for molestation and other made up accusations.

This was not good. We generally belonging to the doctors family aren’t really accustomed to situations like these. The doctor in charge actually got scared and approached me personally to consider a more subtle solution the problem. I took his hint and after putting time in the discussion I concluded that it would best in the interest of everyone to diffuse the situation.

We called up the authorities and informed them of our decision. Obviously they were not happy about our decision and they actually tried to know if we were under some kind of pressure from the other party. Kind of we were, mentally, emotionally but we said there was nothing. The case was withdrawn. Things were kind of unsettling for some time but slowly, in a matter of days, everyone forgot about it.

That has lead me to think if is there any difference between Moral science and applied moral science? Generally speaking I tried to do what according to me was best for everyone.

I have come to think that when you live in an ecosystem where you have people dependant on you or you are dependent on people then the moral science changes it’s course to applied moral science where we twist and turn the morals and bend them to the best of our circumstances.

I believe the values or learnings of moral sciences apply to you when the only person that is being affected by your actions is yourself. When there is no dependant collateral to the consequences that may arise from you following the morals.

So moral science is not really a joke it is an important guideline to take actions which benefits all at a given time that may or may not be be agreeable by all.

Thank you.

Vote of thanks to following people who contributed their thoughts:

James, Vishruth Vivek.

Beautiful quotes submitted by viewers during the live session

“The entirety of society’s legacy lay in the stories we are told” – jamie