Be Moral, Not Moralistic

Check Your Rightness

Do not allow your vision or perspective to be too small and personal. Moralistic attitudes (which stem from moralism—undue emphasis on morality, the habit of moralizing) often occur in people who demonstrate signs of a constricted heart and who exploit morality as a way to repress desire, love, and longing. Moralism is a sign that Eros is being constrained. Moralism is a neurotic complex, a failed attempt to be moral, a set of attitudes and behaviors that leads to poor judgment and—ironically—an obsession for what is being denied. Yielding appropriately to temptation, therefore, is one way to get rid of unwanted enticements. Unlike moralism, morality leads to positive ethics and compassion, the latter being hard to give away because it always comes back.