Society's Emphasis on Morality Has Led to Immorality

Excuses, excuses, that’s all we seem to hear today. Excuses for not doing our homework, excuses for not honoring our commitments, excuses to get sympathy, excuses to exact our revenge.  The point is that there is not one person today who hasn’t come up with an excuse for their own personal gain that preyed upon the vulnerable aspects of human nature or the need to adhere to social conventions.

            In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Mr. Walcott shouts with conviction that Martha Corey used witchcraft to murder all of his cows because of a bit of petty resentment that the one she sold him died soon after. Abigail Williams screams hysterically that Elizabeth Proctor used dark magic to stab her, when in reality Elizabeth did nothing; Abigail was just jealous of her husband. These characters are willing to use ridiculous accusations of witchcraft, manipulating the townspeople’s desire to fit in and follow their church and their need to succumb to the id and be part of an animalistic mob, as an excuse to get their revenge—for something stupid and unimportant, mind you.

            I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of people manipulating one another with silly excuses. I’m sick of people trying to gain sympathy with fake sob stories as to why they did not honor their commitments. I’m sick of people preying on others’ need to be nice. I’m sick of girls complaining about their girth for the soul purpose of having someone tell them they’re skinny. I’m sick of this, but most of all, I’m sick of people using excuses to beat up on others to build themselves up. When the media needs a scapegoat to blame all the evil in the world on, they portray something like the Catholic Church—the largest charitable organization in the world—as this reactionary hate group like the Westboro Baptist Church. Though Catholicism prohibits gay marriage—and it’s not the only religion that does—Catholics have never led any actual attacks on gays. The media preys on people’s need to be viewed as accepting as an excuse to push its own ideology. People use each others’ desire to be kind to gain sympathy and exempt themselves from hard work. It seems society’s emphasis on people being viewed as kind and moral has pushed some to be manipulative and cruelly take advantage of others.