At one point of your childhood or adolescense, you probably realized that, throughout the course of history, most people held moral beliefs that we now consider horrifying. Human sacrifice used to be commonplace. Slavery and colonialisim were rarely questioned, even by moral philosophers. Homophobia, mysogyny, and racism were accepted as normal by the majority of those not affected by it until very, very recently (and still is in many places).
In other words, if you took somebody from the past and judged them in the same way we judge each other, you would almost definitively think that this person was a monster.
Given this, you can believe one of two things:
- You are part of the first generation with a completely "correct" set of moral values and there will be no more changes to the mainstream idea of what constitutes evil for the rest of history.
- You will also be considered a monster.
Hopefully, it's self-evident that the first belief is delusional. I see very little reason to believe that we are special as far as morality is concerned. Thus, we are left with the fact that we will probably be judged as monsters.
Now, one could argue that people shouldn't be judged by the standard of the future, that everyone should be measured by the standard of the time in which they lived. However, I find this argument to be an excuse to not think deeply about the issue. Although one can judge relatively, pain is absolute. Being whipped until your back is unrecognizable used to hurt as much as it would hurt now. Losing your child because someone despised the color of their skin was as painful two hundred years ago as it would be today.
Sure, if your goal is to establish a metric to compare the moral character of people across generations, I understand how you would want to take the mean beliefs of their times into consideration. However, if your goal is to not be a monster, I don't see why what we consider normal should be that relevant.
So, how are we monsters? What are those behaviors that are perceived as normal but are profoundly evil? I (obviously) can't claim to have found a complete answer. That said, there are two behaviors of which I am pretty confident that make the list:
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Purchasing animal-based products. I believe that once we put aside all the bias we carry due to having lived our life entire surrounded by animal products and the widespread acceptance of the complete disregard of non-human animals, this one is straightforward. Even if you think that there's a 10% chance that non-human animals can experience 10% of the suffering that humans can experience, the conditions in which most animals are raised are too dreadful to be justified by more culinary diversity. This is ignoring the enviromental impact, the autonomy argument, and the fact that there's very little evidence to support any difference at all in the capactity for suffering of other mammals and our own. Although I'm not the biggest fan of anti-speciesism, I think that Peter Singer's Animal Liberation Now might be the best book on the topic.
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Indulging in luxuries instead of donating effectively. If you are smart about it, every $5,000 you donate can (in expectation) save somebody from dying of Malaria. Thus, it's not obvious how choosing to go on vacation with your family, assuming you are able to do so, is not at least comparable to killing somone. This is the central idea of Singer's Famine, affluence, and morality. If you are convinced by Singer's argument, you can start donating effectively at Giving What We Can or GiveWell.
I'm almost certain that there more actions and inactions that make us evil that I fail to see. Also, there are a few behaviors that I'm currently trying to think through if they are acceptable or not, such as going climbing. The reason I think that it might not be okay is that, although I love the mountains, I could cause a lot of needless pain if I end up injured/dead (both directly and indirectly, if you take into consideration the positive impact one could have had). On the other hand, there is something to be said about beauty (and therefore its experience through nature) having intrinsic value.
If you think of anything that you believe has potential to make it into the list of normal yet immoral behaviors, I would appreciate it a lot if you reach out to me and tell me about it.