Thursday, 29 July 2010
A sausage roll
I ate a sausage roll the other day, but I did not enjoy it. Not because it was a poor quality sausage roll. In fact it was quite good. The reason I did not enjoy it is because I was going against many years of conditioning of not eating pork and thinking of such an act as repulsive. So even if I no longer believe in the reasons for such abstention, going against this training left me with a sort of feeling of guilt. I know this feeling. In the past, when I did something that broke one of the tenets of the religion I was brought up in, I would be left with similar feelings, but stronger. Over the years, I have managed to fight this indoctrination with the aid of questioning (use of which, by the way, is heavily discouraged if it questions the system itself, in this case religion. In other words, made to feel guilty about this as well). It may not seem this way, but this post is not intended for religion bashing. In fact, these feelings made me think about the idea of our moral compass. Made me think about that voice inside us that tells us what is right and wrong. And that feeling of guilt that tells us when, according to our morality, we have done something wrong. Many, if not all, of you reading this post will not consider eating a sausage roll a wrongful act. However, my inner voice was trying to tell me that it is. I ignored that feeling and I know eventually I will not care at all. So what does this say about morals? Is there really such a thing and is it possible to use anything as a guide? Or are they just a convenient level of understanding we have developed, as a society, to sustain the system. Any deviation from these rules (morals), especially if it threatens the integrity of the system, and the protection mechanism (guilt) kicks in. It was a difficult sausage roll!
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"Many, if not all, of you reading this post will not consider eating a sausage roll a wrongful act."
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I think everyone has had a sausage roll experience that they would rather forget, you have been to Gregg's, right? :-)
But to be serious for a second, was it possible to enjoy the taste of the sausage roll independently of the guilt associated with the act of eating it? Or does the latter negatively impact on the former?
Hey Lisa,
ReplyDeleteThat is true, Gregg's sausage rolls truly are a sin ;-)
As for me enjoying the taste independent of the guilt. Well, I don't think that was possible. I could not, at this stage anyway, dissociate the thought of what the act represents from the act itself. I guess this is a true guilty pleasure. Although, I wonder if it is possible to enjoy a truly guilty pleasure; do people enjoy the feeling of guilt as well when they are enjoying those pleasures.
I think you are right to a point Omar, but even accepting that morality is ultimately rooted in society and not anything truly eternal (and that shouldn't be surprising for an aetheist!) couldn't even a moral maverick like you admit that guilt also plays a positive role in society? Psychopaths are people who feel no guilt. They are free of many of the constraints of society, and therefore from a certain point of view are to be admired. But I think I'd much rather live in a world where guilt sometimes imposes on us unecessarily because of religious dogma, than in a world of people who felt morally free! Ok so you'll say that is an extreme example, but so long as we live under a legal system that distinguishes immoral (or at least shameful in the eyes of some) acts from illegal ones, it is down to us and our communities to reflect intelligently on why we feel negatively about certain things. Nes pas?
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