On the Subject of Morality

I do not believer in absolute good and evil; the black and white distinction between good and evil cannot occur in a world as "morally" flawed and imperfect as this, amongst people who are are prone to satisfy their innate and inherently selfish biological wants and needs—their ids—before they even consider some other person's needs. No, like socialism, this concept is merely an unobtainable utopia vision, a misguided view of an otherwise flawed mankind. Call me cynical, but everybody, no matter how "good" he may seem, is liable to commit a morally "wrong" action at some point in his life, whether this involves robbing a bank or lying. Nobody is perfect, and it is an unhealthy attitude to believe that this is false. Thus, the concept of morality, with it distinctions between absolute good and absolute evil, is utterly false. 

Morality, however, serves an essential purpose to society. The moral system, as we perceive today, was originally conceived as a way to govern society, and it subsequently resulted in the formation of governmentally sanctioned law system. Since the beginning of the first civilizations thousands of years ago (and even before that), people have conformed to widely held moral beliefs, mostly in response to law enforcement—but sometimes due to their own moral compasses. Morality provides a survival advantage, ensuring the survival of the species. In fact, most types of living things on Earth like humans and chimpanzees (I will not assume all since I have no way of knowing) have some kind of morality system; many animals, for example, refrain from killing their own kind, or at least others in their community. Humans, like other animals, have developed their own moral system, though this system is far more sophisticated as it has been formalized and codified into law. Without law, and therefore morality, society would be reduced to anarchy: society could not exist. Human society has generated a moral code so that the latter may not come to fruition. 

I do not believe in good and evil, I do not believe in morality. Nature does not make any distinction between good and evil, so why should humanity make this distinction? Society labels what it believes to be advantageous to its continued survival as "good" and whatever it believes to be subversive or disruptive to its workings as "evil." Subjective distinction between "good" and "evil" become objective with the implementation of law, and people convicted of defying law are punished at varying levels of severity, depending no how "evil" their misdeeds are. Moreover, people are indoctrinated with the concept of morality at birth, so the mere thought of drying the "system" that has for so long characterized human way of life seems ridiculous to most people. Other living things do what they must to survive, and humans are no different, at least without reinforcement from the law. If law enforcement were to suddenly disappear from this Earthy, people would kill, steal, destroy, and plunder just like every other animal would, not because it would be considered "evil" to do so, but because it would be necessary for survival to do so. The New York City Blackout of 1977 demonstrates this point perfectly. From July 13 to July 14, 1977,  the entirety of New York City suffered a city-wide power outage that resulted  from over-consumption of energy for air-conditioning, and therefore over-taxation on local power plants, due to the intense summer heat. The only locations in New York City unaffected by the outage were a small neighborhood in southern Queens, and neighborhoods of the Rockaways. During the ensuing commotion, violent riots occurred all over the city and people looted as much as they could from local stores.  In total, 1,616 stores were damaged in looting and rioting. 1,037 fires were responded to and 3,776 people were arrested, the largest mass arrest in history. This example demonstrates that, without law enforcement, people will result to whatever means they must to survive. 

The only reason, I believe, why most people obey societal laws is due to the fact that most people are better off with them securely in place; most people do not have to commit "evil" act in order to survive. This and the fact that defiance of the law will result, like I have said, in punishment ensures that people continue to adhere to a law (moral) system. Since there are not absolutions in good and evil, this belief is only a misguided and overly optimistic view considering no person can be absolutely good in an otherwise flawed world, and since society has developed morality as a way in which to further its prosperity, I will conclude by asserting that morality is an intangible, debatable belief that has no basis in nature. Nature, biology, doe not recognize "good" and "evil"; it recognizes survival and fitness and which individuals succeed most at these.