My Moral Compass Keeps Pointing South.

so here is the thing: i watched tim burton’s the corpse bride again yesterday. if you haven’t watched it then skip this post and go do something productive because i am going to ruin the ending for you. it is a pretty good movie and i highly recommend it if you have some time to kill.


at the end of the movie, helena bonham carter’s character has a massive change of heart as she realizes that that ‘right thing to do’ is give up her pre-death ambitions of marriage and let johnny depp’s character marry someone else.

The Right Thing to Do.

kinda crappy isn’t it? in order to do what’s right, she forgoes her own happiness for someone else’s. this led me to think about all the other self-sacrificing acts that are deemed as ‘the right course of action’. a cursory evaluation of my own moral compass (or lack thereof) led me to an interesting discovery.

in fact, i predict that if you examining your own moral compass or your understanding of the nature of ‘Doing the Right Thing' you’ll discover a pattern similar to that of mine:

(let:
A. My Happiness/Comfort/Safety/etc. = x
B. The Happiness/Comfort/Safety/etc. of Others = y)

1. If x > y
AND
2. The above is an INVERSE relationship (for the most part, go with me on this for a bit...)
AND
3. You can, within means, control x
THEN
4. You should try to increase y because it is the right thing to do.

of course one could argue for a corollary stating that if by my actions (through control of x) y increases, and this increase is measurable by me, then x also increases. i would thus be forced to retort with the speculation that whilst (that’s right! I said WHILST!) there may be and increases in x, the total value of x is now still less than before my initial interventions to increase y. (ha! take that you imaginary discourse person you!)

additionally, it appears that most of my actions to increase x results in (at least partially) a decrease in y, and if this decrease is observable my me, THEN x DECREASES ALSO!!! How unfair is that?!

the question now becomes: if i perceive the above as unfair or ‘wrong’ (which i do, of course.) does this mean that my moral compass is broken?

~out