Moral Compass II

 

Theseus was one of the greatest of Greek Heroes.  Perhaps the son of King Aegeus of Athens or Poseidon (which would make him a demi-god) His mother Aethra raised Theseus until he becomes aware of who his father really is and goes on various adventures.  The point is - through his life he acts in a most heroic manner even while he goes about creating problems within his own life and that of other people around him (Ariadne for one). Over the years I have thought about the issue of ethics and morality, faithfulness and honor.  It is never easy to take the difficult path, but maybe by the end it is.  Yet as heroic as Theseus is, he was anything but a hero when it came to Ariadne or Madea.  

Perhaps we are in a constant battle with our inner selves - to be honorable and faithful, to be heroic and loyal, all the while we fail and find the lowest common denominator to operate in.  But maybe one can be heroic and honorable yet be a cad, and unkind toward women or men.  Perhaps we can.  Our moral compass would still be working even while we behaved badly.  Perhaps.

Some questions and issues in life are very easy, or should be, to answer.  For a Christian, it is a no brainer to say they believe in Jesus as their savior.  For a Moslem, it is natural to say they believe Mohammad was Allah's final prophet.  Easy peasey.  Some questions do not or should not take word smithing to answer.  The most famous word-smithing was Bill Clinton when confronted with the inappropriate sexual behavior with Monica Lewinski - it depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.  

This brings us to the genocide of the Jews at Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania.  

When the Presidents of those esteemed institutes were asked whether calling for the genocide of the Jews was abusive language or would violate the universities speech codes ... all three said it depended upon the context.

The University of Pennsylvania has just fired their president.  Useless is as useless does.

At Harvard, the drop in donations and bad press are overwhelming the system ... it is a matter of time and the president will step down.  It was also Harvard, according to The Wall Street Journal that  cautioned undergraduates that “cisheterosexism” and “fatphobia” helped to perpetuate violence, and that “using the wrong pronouns” qualified as abuse.

Broken Compasses.