Ethical dilemma

There are no innocents, as we all have a little guilt or responsibility for the pain of the other...

Everyone knows, even subconsciously, that practical life — dating, work, marriage, etc. — puts us in an ethical dilemma, in which our character and the quality of social coexistence will be determined.

Practical life presupposes some degree of violence (even symbolic or psychological) of submission, of malice against someone or something. For example, how many times are we thrown or impelled to mistreat someone or even to be indifferent? Now! Often even in the name of our survival and duty; or even when we give in to the will of others — for example, friends — even when these attitudes are ethically reprehensible [an issue that is very present in adolescence].

Thus, practical life occasionally sets our character in motion.

In general, one avoids thinking about it, accepting as a fact that the important thing is to gain an advantage for oneself. Thus, oppression, violence — even if implicit or symbolic —, submission, evil, are conditions for the existence of a society. There is no other way to live; here's the fact. So they say!

If practical life implies the denial of ethical values, such as coexistence, love, respect, brotherhood, justice, perfectly aligned with each other, (first) there are no innocent people, because we all have a little guilt or responsibility for the pain of the other; (second) only the denial of the social world — as the hermit does when he isolates himself from human life — can reconcile existence and ethics; therefore, (third) only the religious man — inasmuch as religion aims precisely at that, to suppress the impious, selfish, violent, evil values of the human spirit —, the hermit, the mystic, the religious [finally] is innocent, that is is, suitable and good, precisely because his life is not guided by worldly values, the consequence of which is... Undeniably some damage to the other.

What then are we to do? Accept life as a space of struggle between the “strong” and the “weak”, or renounce selfishness in the name of a deep sense of obedience in the face of the existence of the Other? If yes for the last case, how to do it?

Thiago Carvalho.

Psychologist and graduate student in neuropsychology.