It’s no secret that, contemporary youth culture is characterized by impulsive pleasure seeking. Usually when discussing a personal issue with someone, the sort of response one hears is “I think you should do what makes you happy”. One seldom hears “You should do what is right” or any other reference to principle. The zoomer’s idea of the meaning of life is to do what you feel like doing. So long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, what could possibly be wrong with it?
There’s this weird idea that discipline, adherence to a code of ethics, or sacrifice are painful and bad. This strikes me as an odd assumption. If someone decided is was the right thing, if lot’s of people decided it was the right thing, if the lord came down upon someone and revealed to them that something was good, why would people begin to assume that it was bad? In my own experience, every time I’ve stopped doing something that was wrong but seemingly easier and quicker, I’ve realized it was just the opposite. It’s like taking of a really heavy backpack and realizing the flight of stairs you wanted to climb isn’t that steep at all.
Here’s an analogy I quite like.
Imagine you’re a rock climber. There are many ways to scale a rock face, of varying
degrees of difficulty, elegance, speed etc. But the best way, the right way, is
easier than all the rest. It’s just hard to find. Of course there’s more to bouldering
than just getting to the top of a massive chunk of stone, but I’m trying to make a point.
It may be difficult to find the right path in the midst of so many wrong ones,
but once you find it the task becomes less of a struggle, the burden is significantly
lessened. And I’m convinced this is the case in life
(although admittedly you can poke a few holes in my analogy).
Discipline and adhering to principle takes much of the load off your mind and
your conscience. You could almost think of it as the motion of an inertial body:
when still, the momentum required to set the body in motion is much greater than
if it has gradually sped up over time. There’s also the question of changing the
direction of an object already in motion. If you become habituated to operating on
principle and doing what you know to be right, when a difficult moral decision is
required of you there will be enough momentum that any course correction or increase
in speed is easier than it otherwise would be.
“My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30)
A quick note on sacrifice: the normal connotation of sacrifice is to give up something you want because you have to. To exchange it for something you want less but is better for you. When a mother sacrifices her own life to save her child, who’s life does she value more highly? Her’s or her child’s? Here’s a little etymological trick: artifice sacrifice. I’m pretty sure I read this in Jung around the beginning of 2020 and totally forgot about it until recently. To sacrifice something is not to exchange it for something less valuable, it is to elevate it to the position of highest value. To make it sacred.
There’s this video by imaginaryaxis about how Batman is insane. In the video it’s mentioned that Batman defined his moral code in a moment of clarity, and that he wouldn’t have been able to under normal conditions. The rest of the time the only thing keeping him from going nuts is the fact that he has those rules clearly spelled out, meaning it’s merely a question of discipline.
In isolation we may become prideful or arrogant, thinking ourselves holier than thou. When tested it may be sudden, like a strong wind throwing you off your feet, or it might be nothing more than an itch in the back of your mind. One thing to remember is that the easy route is often staying on your path. Despite feeling driven to do the opposite, consider the complexity that would be added to your life if you gave in. If however the complexity is difficult to discern it’s good to have a friend who will keep you in check. Having a public stake, having skin in the game, having people around that know you and would be disappointed if you succumbed to temptation is the next best thing after shielding yourself from it. But in the end, it’s a matter of sticking to what you already know to be right.