Doing the Right Thing

It's hard, I admit it. It is already difficult enough to go against our selfish nature to do the right thing, but this difficulty is compounded by the fact that so few people in our society are in the practice of actually doing the right thing. We live in such a hedonistic culture that the pleasures of the here and now far outweigh what is even generally accepted as moral standard.

So many people keep the iPod they find on the ground. So many people empty the wallet before returning it. So many people don't tell the girl they won't ever call them again. So many people tell lies just to get other people to give them what they want.

True, over time, society's moral standards do change, but people often claim themselves to be the instruments of this change as an excuse so that they can blatantly ignore the cry of their conscience to stop; instead they scar it so as to make way for future misconduct. If I had given up something that I deeply wanted because it was the right thing to do, many of my peers would call me crazy.

They have.

I call myself principled.

In the end, I have found that there is an internal gratification attained from doing the right thing. There is a knowledge that you stood up against your physical or mental desires for pleasure, or domination, or instant gratification, and made a difficult choice, even in the face of the masses. It is such a freeing feeling.

A healthy psyche is a more important thing to have than a fleeting pleasure.