THIS SECTION IS ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY

This section explores the role of immorality in spreading dissatisfaction on the descent to inhumanity.

Immorality is the conduct of life with complete disregard to authoritative codes of right and wrong. The "authority" comes from a multitude of sources, including traditions, cultural norms, society, government, religions, teachers, law enforcers, business people, carers, instinct, natural justice and many others.

Rules of Morality are at the same time very slow moving and very responsive, very vague and very precise. They are obvious and mysterious. They are easy to understand and difficult. Morals take account of circumstance. Exactly the same moral behaviour in one circumstance may be immoral in others. The taking of a healthy baby's life, for example, is unreservedly condemned in almost every society. But the morality is far less clear where the baby is suffering in excruciating agony from a prolonged illness from which doctors have no hope of cure.

Similarly, rules from different "authorities" may conflict. Tradition and culture may dictate behaviour of respect to others, but fascist leaders of a recent coup may propagate hate against certain groups in order to disunite opposition to its ways.

Failure to following any single conduct of "right" in any single circumstance can never been seen as immoral. Rather, immorality is the total disregard of huge swathes of standards of good behaviour where they conflict with behaviour motived disproportionately by self-interest.


In legal terms, Natural Law is a concept of law whose content is set by "nature" and that therefore has validity everywhere. Although it is spelled out in many cultures, to many is "self evident". An example of laws that are deemed to be self evident is the rule that "all men are created equal" in the US declaration of independence. In moral terms, Natural Justice is the sense that society should treat everyone fairly, even where other standards of conduct give rise to a different outcome. It is our sense of natural justice that causes us pain to see a starving child living amongst other well-fed children. Natural justice is a safety net to catch inappropriate behaviour dictated by other codes of conduct. It is the naked flame of "Right" that lights the shadows of immorality.

We live in such complex times, in society that is so advanced and complex, that we rarely see the woods for the trees. Moral behaviour is society's way that guide us towards appropriate behaviour. It evolves with changing times, sometimes well sometimes poorly. Generally, where moral conduct has developed in the wrong direction, once its consequences are understood, the behaviour adapts again. Where we try to second guess morality ourselves, we rarely succeed since our own interests get in the way. Immorality removes the framework for our behaviour, leaving us in an environment for which we are genetically ill-equipped, with very entirely inadequate capacity to understand individually the consequences of a self-developed behaviour.

As soon as we disregard moral behaviour, we become susceptible to behaviour that is inappropriate both to the needs of others and to the needs of ourselves. A high degree of morality is required to reap the benefits of Mutual Dependence. Immoral behaviour of one person encourages immoral behaviour of another.