Desire and Morality
I think we can typically divide human motivations into two very distinct categories of analysis. One of them being Personal Judgment, or Morality. And the other being Personal Preference, or Desire. These two tend to conflict at times and I think most of us human beings have experienced, in our lifetime, a direct conflict between what was seen as the right thing to do (Morality) and the Desired thing to do. It is, currently, the human condition that Desire sometimes, perhaps even often, trumps Morality.
A truly good human being then is not one who eliminates all Desire, because a lack of Desire implies the end of what we consider being human. No, a truly good human being is one who translates his Morality to his Desire and finds no distinction between the two. In other words, a person who desires, above all other things, to do what he perceives to be the right thing. To further extrapolate on this it might be possible to obtain an entirely peaceful society (Utopian thinking, yes) if all individuals can agree on what is right and wrong and find it within themselves to translate their Morality to their Desire.
There are various theories about Morality, some of them stating that they are inborn characteristics installed in our genetic makeup. I find, myself, that this is indeed the most plausible alternative because we can frequently detect that even those who have grown up in violent situations or have experienced similar negative circumstances from an early age can still come to peaceful ways and visions pertaining to life and the existence of others. The brain as it were obtains an understanding of right and wrong in spite the circumstance its in. If this is true, and it might not be, we could say that the only inhibition pertaining to a peaceful society is the innate Desire that can, at times, conflict with Morality.
It is possible for us to detect whether or not the concept of Morality is equal in most individuals through the simple use of anonymous questionnaires in which we ask people to define, in given scenarios, right from wrong and the other way around. Rankings might be used in order to determine what is perceived as the greatest evil, and so on. The measurements could be very simplistic and little statistical evaluation would have to be done since no norming procedures would actually be relevant for the study purposes. This idea interests me and I might pursue it if I find the energy to do so.
Secretly I have already decided that I have the energy to do so.
If it turns out that the understanding of right and wrong is indeed similar or equal in human beings all over the globe the next step is to identify what points of existence delude the power of Morality. In other words, what are the points we can address in order to empower our understanding of, and motivation to do, the right thing. For those who argue that human Desire is so powerful that it will always, in extreme circumstances, overpower Morality the answer is fairly simple and divisible in two parts:
1. If we can come to terms with our Morality now, and empower it dramatically, no such extreme circumstances will exist in the future.
2. The human condition is fluent, in constant movement, we might at least try to give it a positive spin, no?