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Moral pollution
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This morning I walked by an empty water bottle tossed on the side of the road. It had been there all week. I got to thinking.
I remembered a scene in Titanic where something (I thought it was a marble but my daughter says it was a bullet) rolls slowly off a table in an early, clueless stage of the impending disaster. No one particularly notices it — no more than one would notice the scene of nobody picking up a discarded water bottle. It is a non-incident. But I was persuaded this morning that whatever government-funded, “golden-fleece award candidate, studies there have been to determine the state of the union, there are no indicators more telling than the sight of a pedestrian walking casually past litter, litter that’s only feet away from a trash receptacle.
This non-act is full of speech. The person walking past (me, in this case) has seen the trash and made an instantaneous mental transaction that is the microcosm of all her other daily mental transactions. Her entire world view is shoehorned into this microcosm. It’s hardly conscious, of course. So I had to work on recovering my reasoning for you. I think it went like this:
“It’s not my job.” “The township’s job; they’re do it eventually.” Or, “It doesn’t matter.”
A sociologist, or a Bible student, would have a field day with this. All I know is that if you multiply my attitude by a few billion people, and that, by thousands of choices a day, you probably have the decline of Western Civilization.
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Soul searching
I’d have picked it up.
Andree, does this make you an accomplice to littering perhaps?
Curiously, I did the exact same thing this morning and I’ve been thinking about it for the past hour. Not guilt, but just wondering what it says about me, my view of others, etc.
Actually, this is one of the basic child rearing lessons–if you don’t pick it up who will?
“It’s not my job.” “The township’s job; they’re do it eventually.” Or, “It doesn’t matter.”
Therein lies the problem government socialism and the tragedy of commons. If government promises to do everything for us (listen to speeches on the campaign trail), then we begin to expect government to do everything for us. Soon, we can do nothing for ourselves including inhibiting ourselves from doing wrong. After all, the government will correct me. Why should I correct myself?
4 wiglaf
actually it is the problem of large population, disenfranchisement from land and natural resources via mechanization and division of labor, and the tragedy of a system that proposes technological and legislative solutions to this moral problem that is IMO best rectified by small populations of people that are more or less familial groups.
Why should you correct yourself? Why don’t you kill yourself? The reasons for quitting are getting bigger each day, and blaming socialism or the government or Teh Fall Of Men is just denial of personal responsibility.
Erasmus,
I was taking a logical argument and bringing it to a logical conclusion. It is a generalization, but you are exactly right, it is “just denial of personal responsibility.” I agree with you 100% on that mark. Too often it seems, the government wants to ease irresponsible behavior.
Why don’t you kill yourself?
Where did THAT come from??
Good point Wiglaf, but it is the powers that be’s job to put a lid on it!
Let me expalin. Our local high school had a litter problem. Kids would dash off to fast food places and then leave the trash in the parking lot in their haste back to class. So the school’s janitors had to pick it all up and empty the trash cans. The school did a big litter campaign, kids got passionate about litter, it became a cause. The problem persisted.
I had to pick up one of my sons for a dentist appointment and was sitting at the curb waiting for him as the crush of kids coming back from lunch descended on the parking lot. Groups of jocks, nerds, emos, piled out of cars and piled thier trash into the parking lot trash cans. All trash went into the trash cans. I didn’t see a sigle kid drop trash on the ground.
As the lot quieted down the crows arrived for their lunch. By the time my son hopped in the car, trash was everywhere!
I mentioned this to another parent I was working with at the school later. He had actually mentioned this to the grounds keeper who said he was powerless over the crows. He then mentioned it to the principal all the way up to the superintendent. It seems trash can lids actually cost more than whatever extra time it takes the grounds keepers to pick it up. The litter campaign stopped. The administrators went quiet.
Apparently the citizenary had been doing right all along it was the people in power who had their priorities screwed up! The church across the street ended up buying the trash can lids after they “caught wind of the litter problem” if you catch my drift.
Maybe that’s why faith-based iniatives may work better than government based programs.
Public school. It’s the biggest socialistic system we have in this country. Let’s not socialize the health care system.
This happens to me most frequently in public restrooms with nobody else around and paper towels strewn around the wastebasket. My mind thinks, nobody else cares, why should I? And an inaudible Voice says, I care. So I generally pick it up but not always.
Mumsee,
It’s a mom reflex. I was at a Starbucks waiting in for the Half N Half. The gal who just used it took a napkin and was cleaning up the spills of other people.
Me, “Are you a mom?”
Her, “Yes, three.”
Me, “Knew it.”
Her, “How?”
Me, “Cleaning up after other people; it’s a conditioned response.”
Where would the world be with out quietly cleaning mothers?
#6
because some pointy head said that this was the only ‘real’ philosophical question. not because I think you should, I think it is an important scalar when we are discussing ethical and moral questions.
what does it matter that Andree walks past trash and doesn’t pick it up? it is clear that no moral system can provide such answers (take your pick: christians believe they are going to heaven for eternity and this life is an illusion, a temporary place to metabolize until they are released from the flesh wheel, the life-death cycle. the WOW interpretation of atheism implies that there is nothing but the selfish pursuit of placing oneself upon the Throne. neither suggest that there is any reason to pick up the trash that Andree chooses to walk by).
clearly these sorts of decisions are relegated to some other authority. i suggest that the way that americans specifically and euro-techno culture in general relegates these decisions to law in such a way that it guarantees the perpetuation of these problems).
The same thing happens at workplaces, large and small. Every company I have worked for that has a breakroom (which is just about all of them) has people who leave it a mess, and one or a few people who end up cleaning up after the others - but often resent having to do so.
In Cub Scouts we stress leaving a place cleaner than we found it (though I did think picking up broken beer bottles, found under a tree near the archery range at day camp last week, was perhaps not the safest thing to do).
If there is a trash receptacle nearby I generally pick something up and throw it out. But unless it is small and clean enough to stick in my pocket, I’m generally not going to take it with me to find a trash can elsewhere.
pauline what is the justification for sacrificing certain parts of the earth to be receptacles of the junk and trash that is generated by the way that westerners live? just wondering, no one wants to look at trash in the woods but that means some woods have to be places where all the trash goes. i’m skeptical that this is a good solution.
Andree,
You have hit upon something serious but I’m not sure this causes a decline of civilization or not - but it might. Knowing what the problem is, not counting the crows above I suppose, is usually the easiest thing in the world. Everyone knows what the problem is - they are what I call ‘Masters of the Obvious’. We all know what is wrong - most always.
What we lack are problem solvers. We don’t have many people who are willing to take the very first step at being problem solvers much less the second step.
What almost all people eventually realize and can agree on, is that they do not know, nor can they agree on, why it is wrong and a problem in the first place or how and what we should do to fix it in the second - although these aren’t the first or second steps required to solve problems. Then the someone that actually does the fixing, when ever God forbid a solution is stumbled upon, is even harder to find - especially if the fixer is you - as it almost always will be.
Even the the most simple of problems like picking up your own trash, for heavens sake, becomes difficult for almost everyone. Now try to pick up someone else’s trash you are walking right by or trash that the crows strewn everywhere after you put it in a bin without a lid once already - like an idiot. Don’t worry it is OK to be stupid when solving problems.
Most all problems finally get solved once and for all by stupidly failing at solving them many times in the past. Often the real solution cannot be seen, even by the most brilliant problem solvers on the planet, even if they all work together, until they fail horribly doing something stupid first. One of them will say “gosh, we wouldn’t be in this mess if we would have done that instead” Smart problem solvers don’t have fear, pride or ego that get in the way and cause failure every time, they just admit their mistakes and go do the right thing reveled by them instead.
While, I will assert that there few schools that actually teach folks the many ways, technologies and methodologies that could be used in fixing any and all problems. I will also assert that few parents today teach these things to their children either since they were never taught them either, don’t have a clue what they are and are probably horrible teachers anyway - like most teachers are today.
I will also say that problem solving and getting things done, every bit of it, comes down to little old you and the character attributes you have, the ones which define your personal accountability and responsibility and problem solving ability.
But, this is true about everything great and small worth doing in the world isn’t it? Its all up to you.
Anyone can and does create problems for themselves and others, another thing most people are masters at by the way, but fixing problems, even the most simple of them, defies human logic, confounding mankind possibly destroying the whole of our civilization single handedly - if you accept some hyperbole from those that are masters at it.
Well, if you want to contribute to the solution rather than being the cause of problems all the time, the first of the first two steps you need to take to solve a problem is; you need to make the problem your problem and admit (or at least realize) that you probably created it. If you do not see it as a problem, your problem, you will not do anything to solve it. Secondly, you must realize and admit that possibly only you can solve the problem and if you don’t it will never be solved and since you created the problem most likely - you will be forever miserable until this problem is solved.
See how and why your character attributes relating to personal responsibility an accountability are so important to probelm solving? The only thing missing is the absence of fear, pride and ego. How will that floor ever get clean if you think it beneath you and it is your floor? Don’t worry if someone else you on your hands and knees washing it either - when they laugh at you, tell them get down there with you or get the heck out.
Know and use these three things and you will become the problem solver everyone …. eerrrr …. hates. Yes, the world is upside down for problem solvers. There is a good chance that others will see your new found powers of being more than a Master of the Obvious like them and they will be jealous of you.
But have no fear, they are most likely; more stupid than you, are likely full of fear, pride and ego and are lazy, socialists who think they know everything but can do nothing worth doing. Plus your boss will see you solve problems, the one thing he really hired you for, your wife, children and friends will see you succeed and the next thing you know you might become rich, famous or way more importantly, the best person you could be for anyone else.
I’m guessing that you will be rewarded greatly, in mamy ways that you couldn’t even dream of.
It won’t help you much with God or salvation though, but that is a much easier problem to crack
Re: #12
Well if your offering your house or back yard as a better solution, I’m sure arrangements can be made
Erasmus,
Trash lying around works like a magnet to attract more trash. And more trash (which may also contribute to attracting wildlife looking for food, which may lead to people getting bitten and/or the wildlife getting killed). And leaving broken things unmended. And various kinds of undesirable behavior. When the trash gets picked up and broken things get mended, people’s behavior and attitudes tend to improve.
So when we do produce stuff that is not practical to reuse or recycle - which are better ways to deal with all the stuff we produce and use - it’s better for communities that the stuff go in the trash. Is it better for the earth? I don’t know, but I doubt it’s worse either, if it’s the same quantity of stuff.
#10
Erasmus, you need to type better English. Your sentence structure is deplorable and difficult to understand.
it is clear that no moral system can provide such answers
Perhaps not to someone who claims there are no moral absolutes and yet speaks in terms of absolutes repeatedly. You contradict yourself. You should look into that.
16 perhaps the obstacles to understanding are on your side of the fence.
where did i speak in absolutes? look into that please.
it is crystal clear that an absolute moral system cannot answer the question of ‘Should Andree pick up the trash he walks by, or should he ignore it?’
If I’m wrong, and this system does answer the question, then what of the result? Andree still walks by trash rather than picking it up. So much for your system.
Maybe we could use the world’s trash to fill the stuffing of couch’s used in the casino’s and strip clubs?
Truly it’s not a question of the failure of a moral “system” per se…to suggest such would necessitate inclusion of all participants of the system. I think you’re looking at individual self-centeredness and even self-loathing.
It was pointed out that “moms” have a habit of cleaning up messes - that is a good point, but it can be expanded to include all shades of folks who care. These people are usually concerned about others, willing to donate time and resources to address need, and willing to smile and refuse compensation for a job well done; especially when they are intent on being compensated by a job well done.
…or I could have said “especially when they are intent on the job well done BEING the compensation.”???
“Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end…
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,
got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.
Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”
If the Architect of the Universe can lower himself to wash the feet of one of his creatures, perhaps we could stoop to pick up errant trash.