Our moral compass

My brother Aaron introduced me to a radio show called Radio Lab a while back. I fell in love with it and have listened to most of the hour long episodes. One of the first ones I listened to was on morality. I highly recommend it: Radio Lab’s Morality

In it, they ask people a question (something like):

“There is a speeding train that is going to derail and kill all the passengers inside. You are standing next to a switch that if you push, it will switch the tracks and save everyone on the train, but there is a man on the other tracks and he will die. Would you do it?”

Almost everyone said yes. It’s a numbers game. Then they asked:

“There is a speeding train that is going to derail and kill all the passengers inside. You are standing next to a man that if you push him onto the track and kill him, it will stop the train and save everyone on board. Would you do it?”

Almost everyone said no. Morally it’s the same, is it not? Sacrificing one man for many. So why is our answer different? There are endless debates on where our moral compass comes from, whether it is human nature, genetically encoded, given to us from God, an effect of our environment, etc. But one question I personally heard too much debate in (at least not at it’s core) is whether a person can have, or should have, two moral compasses. Is it possible, and if it is, is it something we should attempt to attain?

John Edwards has been on the news recently to confess to an extramarital affair he had while campaigning for President. While his wife had cancer. And even though he has been out of the Presidential race for a while, the argument on the Democratic side is the same they used with Bill Clinton: What he does in his private life is his business, it has nothing to do with his politics. Really? He can make a promise to be true to the person that should be most important in his life and go behind her back, while she is dying, and lie and cheat, and I’m supposed to believe that while he is capable of that, he would never dream of misleading the American public or make empty promises or make decisions based on selfish motivations? I understand that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. I really do. But I would like to believe that someone who is in a leadership position would not be so far from perfection. Which brings me to my next point:

John McCain had an affair when he was with his first wife.  So what is the Republican defense to this? I’ve only heard one try and that was Sean Hannity. He said, “It was 30 years ago and he had just been tortured in a concentration camp for 5 and a half years.” I wasn’t aware of the torture-to-cheat-on-your-wife ratio… So did those 5.5 years just get him one affair, or has he kept a few in storage?

I do not believe we have multiple moral compasses. You’ve got one, so treat it right.