by Yvonne Donlon

Created on: February 10, 2010

Are we obligated to be moral? No, actually, and even inherently,  we’re not. It gives morality a higher place in the legal, social and spiritual areas of our lives if we call it an obligation. It makes two-thirds of the people answering this debate say YES, whether or not they are actually moral people, and whether or not they understand the complexity of the question.

An obligation is the binding of oneself to a legal, social or moral tie. Binding of oneself: that suggests that an obligation is your choice, not a choice of others. By my choice, at an age of accountability, I bind myself to the country in which I live, the state in which I reside, and in the community in whose area I have chosen to build my house and home. I am bound now to those with which I have chosen to be a part.

I did not mention religion for the obvious reason. As the definition of obligation does not include religion, or even spirituality, as an element to which one binds themselves, then apparently that excludes religion from being an obligation.  Some may argue that in many lands, or countries, their religion is their obligation, the disobeying of which comes with punishment, even unto death. My answer would be, then it’s not really a religion…it’s a law.

In the United States, I am free to choose whatever religion I feel compelled to be a part of, or even bind myself to, but my obligations to it are only as much as I make them.

So, let’s just concentrate for a moment on those element included in the definition of obligation.

Legal binding:

Legally, we are obligated as citizens to obey the laws of the land. When we do not honor our “promise or contract that compels one to a particular action” (i.e. obeying the laws of the land), we are held to account for that be the legal system.  We are legally bound to anyone with whom we enter into a business agreement with, and “by law” even those into which we’ve entered the agreement under “gentleman’s agreement”. I am legally bound, by property, to the person to whom I am married.

We can trace and recount the legality of our obligations ad infinitum. There are laws (obligations) on the federal and state books of this country that would make your head spin. And some of them would be social obligations (laws).  You cannot yell “Fire” in a crowded theater. You cannot walk your dog unleashed, or leave your dog’s fecal deposit for someone else to pick up or happen upon, without threat of fine.  You cannot throw trash out your car window without a severe fine being thrust upon you. You cannot walk around nude in public. You cannot leave your car parked on the street for more than x amount of days without it moving somewhere before it becomes a public nuisance.

The social obligations go on and on as well. And all are written and in the books as laws or ordinances. But, you cannot obligate morality. You can try to make people act as you wish them to by enacting laws, federal, state, local and even social, but you ultimately cannot obligate people to morality. That is the single most powerful, most personal, and least understood of the definitive “obligations”: legal, social and moral.

Morality is what happens within the framework of our obligations, our choices, when no one is looking. Do we have an obligation to be moral? No. Should we be moral? Yes. But that’s another question altogether.

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