The Morality of Expediency

My book of fascination of the moment is Out of My Later Years by Albert Einstein. Prior to this all I really knew about Einstein was E=MC² and he had strange hair and seemed like pretty nice guy that had flunked a math course in school while being a mathematical genius. I have found a whole new fascinating person now that I am reading his book.

His views on religion, science and morality are absolutely fascinating. The essence of his belief it seems to me to center around tolerance. He sees no conflict between science and religion, to which I most hardily agree. He views religion in a developmental sense in that primitive people created anthropomorphic gods with superhuman powers that could help them deal with life; lot’s of gods. This finally developed into monotheism where God is not anthropomorphic but an entity unto itself which leads us to concerns beyond self. I like his thinking; however, simply I have described it here.

His views on tolerance between religions and philosophies and science are wonderful. But as human beings we so often lose sight of the purpose and meaning of those disciplines and create conflicts in their names and thus lose the truth that they all have to give us.

In terms of morality Einstein sees religions enlarging our vision to the welfare to more than just ourselves; community concerns outweighing selfish issues. It is the essence of civilization.

For some time now I have maintaining that the dominant morality of today is the morality of expediency, meaning we are increasingly bottom line thinkers. We act in accordance to what we see as best for ourselves and ours. The higher levels or morality that Einstein sees are lessening. Thus when the bankers who bet against those they lent money to in order to buy houses that they would not be able to make their mortgage payments were practicing this morality of expediency. The bailout of these banks then as being too large to fail is another case of the morality of expediency. It is why business schools now find they have to teach their MBAs and the like the ethics of business because they don’t know them. Their parents, their schools, the religions have failed to pass along basic moral concepts to the present generation.

People may listen and even give verbal affirmation to the teachings of Jesus such as, “love your neighbor as you love yourself,” “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and the teachings of hospitality in Islam and elsewhere; but in practice they live out the morality of expediency.

And if we look at the political debates of the day this morality of expediency is practiced unabashedly. Politicians obviously feel it is entirely moral to lie and misrepresent their opponents and themselves, to use any means necessary to get elected. The trust the morality builds, according to Einstein, is lost as a result.

We need to be teaching living out the principles of trust and tolerance of we are to be a truly free and civilized people. This begins at the family level and should continue as part of education.

If we as a people need a New Years resolution, this would be a good one.