WildIrish,

I am commenting on the morals you refer to in your post. Morals address the question of how an individual should live in society. The principles directing right or appropriate conduct, if you will. We all have morals, and the lives we lead are the visible representation of those morals. Our day to day behavior displays or morals to everyone we meet, talk to, or work with. We observe the morals of others interact with them.

Interestingly, this daily exposition of our morals flatly contradicts the claim that morals cannot, or even worse should not be taught. We teach others about what we believe to be good – our morals – all the time, every day.

I assume that you believe that you live a morally acceptable life. I know no one who does not believe that – no matter that their behavior may differ from what I believe to be morally “best”. Whenever someone discovers that one or another of the moral principles which guide their behavior does not work well with the others, either the odd one out or the others get changed. People whose behavior falls within one standard deviation of the norm, the “average”, “normal”, or “regular old” folk, try to have a consistent set of morals. Having contradictory guidelines in one’s personal goal setting apparatus can lead to behavioral problems.

You asked the question “If you're allowed to express your beliefs by not serving me...are you not denying me my morals and beliefs?”. If you believe that to be a valid assertion, it would follow that your belief system – your morals – would be denied if someone did not do as you demanded. This is another way of saying that your morals found compelling and coercing others was acceptable behavior.

So, putting it all together. You asked me to explain the parenthetical aside in a prior post. I have tried to capture the post above. The part in question is “which are, after all, quite OK, otherwise you would have already corrected them”. The subject are the morals, which I believe you judge to be “quite OK”, or acceptable, because whenever you have thought them needing adjustment, you have adjusted them.

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Eudaimonia