quote of the day .

I have a widget on my mac that gives me a daily quote from some fame-worthy person. Today's happens to have a quote by Thomas Hardy, that says "do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons."

The strong juxtaposition of this statement is intriguing. In one way I wanted to just sit and ponder it. But given my desire to publish a blog daily, and my current schedule that is behind, I figured I could just talk about it here, yes?


Morality and ethics is a messy concept. Some say it's impossible to teach, because there are no defined lines. Everything is gray and fuzzy. Everything is fair game. When an ethics teacher came to talk to us about architectural integrity and morality, one of the most common answers to his challenges was 'it all depends.' How true.

Where do we draw the line? At what point does something bridge the gap between moral and immoral? What is right and what is wrong? These things occur on a daily basis -- and whether they be trivial or capable of upending lives, they exist.

Perhaps this can be related to the terrorism that exists today. Whether a terrorist or not, is it not common sense to know that killing is wrong? I'm a strong supporter of the military -- but is it right for us to be the world's police? Is the US as a country too power hungry? And do we stick our noses into things we shouldn't? I can understand the need for some sort of fight after what happened on the 11th of September in 2001. I feel so much pain from the people who experienced what for many I'm sure was the greatest loss in their life. I can't imagine what it must have been like to go through, and while I was very close to the city, nothing could compare to those who were there. It still blows my mind when I think about it. And if you go and watch the videos, look at the pictures, and read the stories... it brings me almost to tears.

Are we doing an immoral need by bringing our military across the ocean to "fix" terrorism? I think we might be fighting an un-winnable battle. How can one country's military possibly wipe out terrorism? It seems virtually impossible. And then there is the ethical standpoints -- civilian casualties along with the many deaths of soldiers, who are not just mindless bodies -- but brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. These are people too. And we can say we understand all we want -- but we're not there. We haven't been through what they have. We have to good intentions, I think, but maybe the execution is wrong.

I'm going to leave off with a saying my dad always used to say...
"the road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Ponder that one for a bit.