The rise of the amoral compass ...

Some believe that each of us has a moral compass of sorts.

In broadest terms, it supposedly determines how we perceive right and wrong, what’s ethical behavior and what isn’t, and how we conduct ourselves. Also how we see and judge others.     

No one is certain where this moral compass comes from.  It may be from how our parents raised us, what we were taught in school, religion, the life stories of those we admire, and real-world experience, among other influences.

Or it may be something some of us are born with or without. Sociopaths are said to lack a moral compass, not necessarily as learned behavior, but some seem to have been born that way; the concept of right or wrong or the effect on others simply has no bearing on their actions. It’s not that they don’t recognize right and wrong – they just don’t care. 

They are driven by an amoral compass in the extreme. They do what they want because it pleases them alone. They have no interest in the feelings of others, the pain they might inflict, or how they may be perceived by society.  They don’t care about anyone but themselves.

It seems more and more people in our country are using an amoral compass.  I’m not saying they’re immoral; that requires a subjective interpretation of morality. No, I’m saying that they don’t really accept conventional and traditional concepts of right or wrong.

Their moral compass has no fixed points, in other words. 

I’m not sure they’ve dispensed with a moral compass intentionally; more likely it’s because an amoral compass is more fun, and easier to follow, because it doesn’t have any rules.

Life can be so much simpler if there aren’t any rules.  If you want something you just take it.  If a law or rule gets in the way of your enjoyment, you just ignore it. If you make a promise and break it, so what?  You don’t have to tell the truth, honor your debts, pay your bills, be faithful or loyal to anyone, support yourself, protect your own children, or anything else if you don’t want to. 

You can take selfies in a store licking donuts or ice cream and putting them back on the shelf.  You can jeopardize the lives of others with a stunt. You can flash-mob a store to loot it. You can even physically assault someone you don’t like, sucker-punch people you don’t know, or destroy public or private property, if you wish. If someone else gets harmed in the process, who cares?

You don’t. And that’s all that matters.    

Following the rules is for chumps, to those with an amoral compass. 

In the past, people like this would be pariahs.  Outcasts.

Today, however, they’re often praised. For the life of me, I don’t know why.  But I do know it encourages more to join in.  Copycats of bad behavior abound. 

I constantly find myself wondering WTF is wrong with some people these days. 

Part of it may be the desire to be a social media star, however fleeting. How else can you explain people posting videos online showing them clearly committing disgusting acts? Mind you, these aren’t acts secretly caught on surveillance cams, but intentionally staged, recorded, and posted online by the perpetrators themselves. They aren’t trying to hide; they want everyone to see.   

If anything, it’s getting worse. People are making videos of themselves gleefully destroying public monuments. Spraying graffiti on memorials to fallen veterans of WWII and Vietnam.  There’s camera-phone footage of people attacking an ICE detention facility, tearing down the American flag and replacing it with a Mexican flag, then flying a defaced American flag upside down.  You’ll also find online videos of black-clad people severely beating journalists covering Antifa protests – they are obviously enjoying themselves in the process. 

They celebrate lawlessness.  They embrace anarchy.   

Recently some Antifa nutjob attacked another ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington with firebombs, and then tried to shoot a commercial-size propane tank there with his AR-15 before he was shot and killed. He could have murdered hundreds – Federal agents and detainees alike, if he’d been successful in igniting the propane tank. 

Maybe you missed all that.  Probably because the media somewhat ignored this clear act of domestic terrorism. There’s no other way to describe what this was.

Yet the media by and large didn’t call it that.

Did the people who continually accuse ICE of not protecting detainees denounce this terrorist’s actions? Nope. They tacitly gave him a pass. They didn't even comment on his use of an AR-15 or bring up the need to ban "assault weapons," which frankly surprised me.  Nobody on the left was willing to speak out on this. Well, except for the Seattle chapter of Antifa which praised his act of terrorism and declared him a martyr “who gave his life to the struggle against fascism.”  

This is nuts, and scary. And it’s spreading. 

We now have mayors and governors openly defying Federal laws and refusing to cooperate with Federal agents trying to remove illegal immigrants with criminal convictions, including at times convictions for rape and murder. We have sitting members of Congress publicly advising illegal immigrants how to lie their way into our country.  And how to avoid deportation even after these same illegal immigrants have had their day in court and been issued valid court orders to leave.

I’m not sure where this all ends.  I fear we are reaching a tipping point that will cause a radical swing the other direction. We’re getting dangerously close to that every day.  

I worry that at some point enough people here will start to believe law enforcement and the courts can’t protect them, their loved ones, and their property anymore. When that happens, some may start taking the law into their own hands because they feel they have no alternative.

The overwhelming majority of those people won’t be neo-Nazis, white nationalists or white supremacists, racists, bigots, ignorant rednecks, or fascists. They’ll probably be pretty normal Americans.  Most will be as vehemently opposed to all those groups as much as anyone else.

It’s a grave mistake to underestimate how many American citizens are nearing the breaking point about the growing trend toward social and political anarchy, lawlessness, and the rise in senseless violence. Or how far they can be pushed before they start pushing back. They’ve been largely silent to this point, giving the mistaken impression they don’t care. 

I think they do, driven largely by their own moral compass. Like me, they watch the news at night and wonder what the hell is going on.

Why would someone lick a tub of ice cream and puts it back in the freezer in a supermarket? And then why would this encourage other people do the same? WTF is that? How could a state governor calmly admit that infanticide may be permitted under a law he signed if the woman decides she doesn’t want her just-born baby. Huh? When did that become okay?    

Many of us are already baffled why our laws aren’t being enforced. Why are some local police told to do nothing when they see certain crimes in progress? Why are police forces in some big cities – and even some entire states – forbidden to ask someone they stop if they’re a US citizen? Why are law enforcement officers ordered to stand down while rioters burn down whole city blocks, pummel those officers with bottles and bricks, and attack innocent bystanders? 

When did all that become acceptable?  It makes no sense. 

Most Americans don’t like what they see.  And nobody in power seems to care.   

Right now they may feel helpless. Confused. They are also becoming increasingly angry.     

I suspect their numbers are growing every day. It’s just not being reported. 

At some point ordinary Americans will have had enough.  At best, they'll vote irresponsible politicians out of office.  At worst, it's anybody's guess.