[Kulturkampf]

I wrote in another thread that morality requires the freedom of choice, the choice of sacrifice.

Thus, my conclusion is simple:

A moral individual must be free.

Without choice in their actions they are incapable of a moral act.

And more than this: a person who is moral must be making a decision in any moral act, and the ultimate decisions in morality stem from knowledge of the situation.

Thus: each individual must be an explorer of their own world and their own moral choices to come to realizations on what are proper and moral actions.

Thus: each individual must Live.

Thus: one must not simply just be following a Christian or other ethical system, but must be consciously doing so and doing so not in fear of hell, but rather in knowledge of the truth behind any such choice.

And so:

I spend my life exploring the basis of my own moral choices by understanding the ramifications of my own actions. Towards this end, I have even committed sins...

Oh, have I committed sins, and Oh, have I enjoyed and loathed each moment of it. It has produced a profound paradox of feelings inside of an individual and has lead to finding out what is the proper path for the fulfillment of the most moral life.

All people must understand their actions and their meanings...

This is why youth, intelligent youth, is characterized as embracing a sense of the wild: they have not yet gone through all of the stages of understanding their broad actions. And that's OK.

One has to sink to the lowest depths sometimes to understand why an action is immoral.

Sexual avarice, violence, etc. are fueled by emotions that are fundamental to a human -- the desire for sexual gratification, the desire for gratifying the impulses of revenge and anger, etc.

Until one understands the pain of sexual indulgence and the fruitlessness of the course one does not understand that monogamous relationships are the ideal path of one's choice -- it would take someone who is less doubting, less questioning to understand this. Of course, one can come to these conclusions by their own feelings of jealousy in sexual relationships and oddly this also produces a sense of revenge within the individual to harm others through their own vengeful, sexual indulgences.

Until one understands the pain and humiliation of physical violence enacted upon oneself or another, one might not understand why violence towards an opponent is unacceptable. It is clear, even in victory, that the thorough humiliation of an opponent often is excessive.

A beaten, broken individual looking up to you for mercy with swollen eyes and blood in their mouth is the greatest argument against fighting for no-good reason.

A jealous, spurned lover, feeling their inadequacies, with whom you have cultivated a close personal relationship is the greatest argument against sexual indulgence.

This is often why theft is one of the easiest things to justify: one does not often see the reactions of those from whom they stole, and one easily justifies their petty thefts by saying 'these people probably have enough.' Few people realize that often it is the common worker who suffers from theft.

Few people also realize that many artists whose work is pirated end up living impoverished lives because of it. A good example are the bands who have gained popularity through internet downloads yet still are normal functionaries in society -- bands like the Oppressed which have tens of thousands of people downloading their music annually but still depend on the earnings of a Pizza parlor in Cardiff, Wales.

I think that people with doubts on moral actions should experiment in them.

The easiest way to learn the truth of an action is to engage in it, to find the moral path within it.

Towards this end society should enable people to make their own choices on all levels so that they are capable of moral action.