Today I’ve been thinking about an interesting topic. Doing what’s right versus doing what makes us comfortable. Boy oh boy haven’t we all been in that situation? I know I have. There have been times when I knew I had to do something, because morally it was right, but Kelsey didn’t want to do. It’s like a conflict going on inside us. Deep down, aside from what we’ve learned from moral values, social norms, and teachings from our parents, we know the difference between right and wrong. The movie K-Pax comes to mind. The movie, if you haven’t seen it, is about a person that claims to come from another planet, and is merely visiting earth for a short period of time, and goes by the name of Prot. When some people discover that he’s claiming this, they take him to a mental institution. When he first arrives there, one of the psychologists from the institution is interviewing him, and his name was Mark. At one point in the interview, Mark asks Prot something along the lines of, what the differences are between his planet and earth. Well they talk a little, and the subject of laws and regulations come up.

Dr Powell: How do you know right from wrong?

Prot: Every being in the Universe knows right from wrong Mark.

Dr Powell: But what if, if someone did do something wrong. Committed murder or a rape? How would you punish them?

Prot: Let me tell you something Mark. You humans, most of you, subscribe to this policy of an eye for an eye, a life for a life, which is known throughout the Universe for its stupidity. Even your Buddha and your Christ had quite a different vision but nobody’s paid much attention to them. Not even the Buddhists or the Christians.

Doesn’t that make you think? I think to an extent, that’s true too. Every being in the universe knows right from wrong. I think we are programmed with it. But we don’t act on it. That’s why it’s necessary to have laws, regulations, police, and military. Now the question arises; why don’t we do what’s right? It almost sounds like Prot is suggesting a utopian society here, but I don’t think so. It could probably be mistaken for that. But what I think he’s saying is, don’t commit the crime in the first place, and there will be no reason to be punished for it. Then he claims our Buddha and Christ had different visions, but no one really pays attention to them, even those that claim to be followers. I think that one quote says so much. It makes me think a lot. Do we, as followers of a certain belief system, do what is right according to what our Christ, Buddha, or whoever we may believe in, says is right; or do we do what we believe is right according to what others in our belief system think? That’s pretty inspiring actually. That pretty much tells me that a lot of followers of any belief system really, are misguided by the people.