My students are always very put off when I introduce them to the term homo sapiens. I then explain that it just means the discerning of wise man. We are, as humans, essentially different because we have been given to ability to think on an extraordinary level. And from that comes this weird idea called morality.
We would all probably agree that if one man was harming another man, and both of them were in need of help, that we would help the one who was being harmed, not the one doing the harming. Also, historically people would not have flinched if their community or society chose death as the.punishment for an outrageous immoral crime. It would be totally simple to them. Death is the punishment, the just deserves. One of he main things we don't consider so often in OUR world is that the community would choose death primarily because it is an "expression of the moral importance of certain crimes".
Stories and books and thoughts are so important because they help us understand eachother a little bit better. This thought from Lewis made me understand the culture I live in just a bit better. We do not place moral importance on crimes or misbehavior. The disgusting behavior I see everyday in the next generation continues because they truly don't see anything wrong with how they act. The right or wrong of it, the principle of it simply does not matter or is not clear.
I think this simple idea is one of the keys. People just don't see. These things have no weight. We are far too easily pleased. We are far too eager to remain plugged in to the matrix and not open our eyes to seek what is truth.
(Reading The Weight of Glory by CS Lewis)
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