Tuesday, February 24, 2009

from Lauren

Arendt wrote, "the total moral collapse of respectable society during the Hitler regime may teach us that under such circumstances those who cherish values and hold fast to moral norms and standards are not reliable...much more reliable will be the doubters and skeptics, not because skepticism is good or doubting wholesome, but because they are used to examining things and making make up their own minds."
This idea that people who cling to values and standards are more dangerous than those who are freethinkers makes a lot of sense to me. I think a lot of people spend all of their time making sure that their actions agree with the moral codes they have set up for their lives, even when that code may not necessarily be fitting in a specific situation. Perhaps morals and norms have a "blinding" effect on us when we take them too seriously and choose to live our lives based largely on our moral codes. Times and circumstances change, which is why I believe so strongly that the tendency to question authority and to have facts is so valuable.

No comments:

Post a Comment