Five Moral Spheres

Culture has provided the multiple views of morality that adapts to the understandings of its beholder. The views can differ from the man at war’s beliefs on killing to the young boy being peer pressured to do activities not suitable for his age. Morality offers insight into the activities that are deemed acceptable by one’s judgment and the ones that are not. When a task that was not considered acceptable is committed, guilt tends to creep in and give reasoning to repent for the actions. Yet many would rather justify their actions and change their morals to satisfy their wants and needs. “The Moral Instinct,” by Steven Pinker, describes the sort of reasoning and rationalizing that is impacted by “The Five Moral Spheres.” Pinker’s objective
Orwell shows great importance towards community and authority throughout the article. His desire to stay pure and fair is taken over by the urge to please others around him and to gain the respect of the people. Even though Orwell disliked Imperialism, he hoped for approval that he never got from others. A chance to gain their respect appeared when a runaway elephant started to create a ruckus in town. The Burmese people urged Orwell to kill the elephant, as they all stared, awaiting the fall of the elephant. Pinker mentions in his theory of morality; “Moralization is a psychological state that can be turned on and off like a switch, and when it is on, a distinctive mind-set commandeers our thinking.”(Pinker 2) By this being said, Pinker wants us to reevaluate our actions that can justify moral from immoral. Sometimes knowing how it feels when this moralization switch flips inside can make people do things they don’t want to, like in Orwell’s case, killing of the elephant. Orwell states, “They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.”(Orwell 2) He knew that this is going against his own morals yet gaining the support of all the people would be worth it. The Community of Burmese people exemplified Orwell shooting the elephant. Although, Orwell pulled the trigger, the driving force was the Burmese people. This shows he didn’t give importance to harm, fairness and purity after all. For once, Orwell just wanted to be respected as the officer of the law, rather than the outsider. Orwell loses his morals for his desire to feel