I bought a "gold" fantail goldfish from Petsmart this past Monday. Today I noticed the other "gray" fantail goldfish I bought from Persmart 1 month ago was acting weird and could possibly die. I was mentioning this to a friend over the phone and I told him that if this "gray" fantail dies on me within this 2 weeks, I could exchange it at Petsmart for another fantail using the 14 day guarantee I have on the "gold" fantail. Petsmart would not know that it is not the recently bought fantail that died. My friend was very clear in telling me that I will be cheating Petsmart and it is morally wrong. This made me think about the small things we do on a day to day basis that is morally wrong but we don't worry about it cause it is insignificant. It is when we do something heinous that we get to think about it as morally wrong. For example, has anybody called in sick to work when they are actually not sick? That is morally wrong cause we are lying to our employer. Granted that we have earned these sick days but it is suppose to be used when we are actually sick and not when we just want a paid day off. Has anybody taken an envelop or stamp from work for a personal mail? This too is morally wrong cause it is stealing but is it so small that we don't fret about it. Has anybody inflated their charitable donation dollar amount for income tax purpose to have more return from the government? This too is lying and cheating the government but we don't worry about it cause the government is so big that taking a few dollars from it is nothing. Has anybody used a bought clothing item once and return it a few days later? This too is cheating the store but we see it all the time happening. I can go on and on with examples but my point is very clear, morality in those examples are not black and white but gray. A little white lie is OK. Taking something insignificant from a big rich entity is OK. Are they really OK or are we just convincing ourselves that it is OK? When do we draw the line about what is morally wrong and right? Is it possible that we are just desensitizing ourselves to do a big morally wrong thing by doing small morally wrong things so often?
Now going back to my goldfish. Since I have bought fish from Petsmart before that died within the 14 days guarantee but I did not bother to exchange them for a new fish, is it still morally wrong to exchange my "gray" fantail using the guarantee from the "gold" fantail?
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5 comments:
Your post is thought-provoking. Let me ponder on it some more. Thanks for writing this and raising the question on morally wrong things, whether big or small.
Some people say that long as nobody's getting hurt then it's OK to tell white lies or cheat once in a while. That's because people think we are separate from each other. But the thing of it is, everyone gets hurt indirectly because we're all connected. Maybe one person will say that so-and-so did this, so why can't I? Then we end up recreating the same evil/lie/dysfunction. Does that make sense Ate? If we can all strive to do the right thing, then perhaps we can make the world right.
oh so true ta lani, in an ideal world, wrong is wrong and right is right and no in between. but we all know we are only human and subject to defects and weaknesses in morality. yes we can all only strive to do what is right.
The fact that we think about the action and ponder if it's wrong or not, says it all. We know that it is wrong, but we justify our actions. Although I tend to have a guilty conscience and think that whatever I do either takes from me 10 fold or returns to me 10 fold.
very well said BAnalyst
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