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Friday, March 11, 2011

Rationalizations

We can rationalize just about anything. "They're a big company, and they cheat everyone else. Why not get something?"
Ok, let's try this:
The classic story.
Starving children. Hallowed cheeks, the works.Having no money,  Man steals bread to feed them. Man goes to jail. Awful, right? It sure is. Desperation, committing a wrong for the greater good, and being punished for it.
Ok, let's say Man gets out of jail. He receives lodging at a priest's home. The priest gives nothing but kindness, food, and a bed. He steals the priest's heirloom silverware.
In the years to come, he pays back numerous victims, becomes a respected man, brings up the abused child of a teenage prostitute who met her demise attempting to keep her child safe, while being swindled. In the end, he does much good, but... others had been punished for his actions, while he lived many lies. Can the rationale that "He did good, he did this..." take that away? Sure, one could argue redemption and repentance... but in helping others, he also committed the crime of being illegally out of prison, lied about his name, and hid from the police as much as possible.
This is the basic rundown of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.
Did Valjean do wrong? Undoubtedly. Did his imprisonment help make him more of a criminal? It does tend to do that, yes. Did he make choices to do wrong? Yes.
Rationalizing, like lying, means that you need to do it more. Because reality will intrude.
What DOES one do when they are desperate? When there seems nothing else? Can that excuse immoral acts?

3 comments:

  1. I didn't read this before I saw you yesterday. The gray areas are so hard to figure out. Does the great good that you do override the bad that you have done. How do you know? When do you know? Can you make up for doing something horrible?

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  2. I never could handle gray areas, I'm afraid. I'm learning now that everything ISN'T black-and/or-white. It's really not an easy lesson to figure out! :) But, ah, that is adulthood. I know that, every one of us has at one point, done something awful... and sometimes, to themselves. But can reasons, like the greater good, excuse those? No, but I do know we all need to pay our debts and forgive ourselves.

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  3. I didn't read this before I saw you yesterday. The gray areas are so hard to figure out. Does the great good that you do override the bad that you have done. How do you know? When do you know? Can you make up for doing something horrible?

    ReplyDelete