The brutality of morality

We must be kind and think of others well being. Or must we? Must we think of others first, and never ourselves first? What is it like to think of ourselves first, and not think of others?

What part of me is freed by not always thinking and doing the "right" thing all the time? What can I let go of?

Can I let go of the anger and judgment of others, when they don't live up to my standards? What do other people not allow themselves, that traps them in it's cage, and makes them judge, and cut themselves off from, others?

What is my jail? What makes my jail any better, objectively speaking, than that person who judges people based on their wealth, or that other person over there who judges people based on popularity? Or that person, who judges people based on power? How am I any different? You think your standards are more moral, and therefore you are more moral, because you respect your own values and look down on those others, but your jail is still a jail. A jail is a jail, whether it's made of shit or of gold. You're still unfree.

What is it like to simply live, without shoulds? Without preconceptions, and judgments? What is it like to accept the facts of life, and people, and their ideas, without immediately judging them? What would it be like to live completely open to this life?

The sickness of our time is tied to our excessive valuing of "right" and rejection of "wrong." The differentiation of good and evil that Christianity brought with it was a positive step forward in the development of human consciousness but it's gone on for too long, and to too great a degree. We're seeing the consequences of our excessive one-sidedness now.

To completely reject all that is weak, stupid, selfish, and ridiculous in us - in other words, to reject our own personal, little evil - is to brutalize ourselves and each other. It is inhuman, and, when taken to its logical conclusion, leads to and only can lead to the most horrific and brutal atrocities. The witch trials of Europe; the extermination of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and leftists during the Holocaust; and the violence against immigrants and progressives in America today are all the result of this sick one-sidedness. An unconscious shadow is the weak spot where collective evil - true evil - can catch us, and no shadow is darker and more unconscious than that of the moralist. To avoid having such a dark and vulnerable shadow we must become conscious of it. Becoming conscious of ones shadow makes it less dark, but this requires of the conscious self that it give up some of it's brightness, because the darkness has to go somewhere.