There is no good or evil, only power

Morality, much like the physics of space-time, is lacking an absolute frame of reference that would make the calculations that much easier. There is no such thing as right or wrong because each civilisation, demographic, group and individual have their own moral frame of reference. Throughout the ages, we have conflicts between an imperialistic western world against traditional Islamic values, between Christian missionaries and scientific heretics, between pro-life and pro-choice campaigners, between a spouse and family whether to pull the plug on the life support of a family member, between a couple in an argument about the remote control... what all conflicts have in common is multiple belligerents all of whom are convinced that they are right and that their opponents are wrong. And who is right? It's impossible to answer that because, in my opinion, there is no such thing as right.

At the highest level, the moral compass is defined by the laws and customs of our society and is supposed to reflect the people of the world. But it's impossible to define a moral correctness that everyone can agree to. Sure people try to come up with an answer but everyone's answer is different. Everything has been tried, from perceived divine intervention, inheritance of absolute power, to the guy with the biggest stick makes the call. Even numerical majority or plurality rules has its limits. People with power still make the decisions, human rights activists or cult leaders can create majority and military powers or supreme court judges can ignore a majority. It all boils down to various people trying to impose their view of right on everyone else. But if there is no such thing as an absolute right then how are we supposed to know what to do?

Imagine you are a person with an idea to change the world. Maybe you want to take more money off the rich and give to schools, or to prohibit your fellow people from being killed before they have emerged from their mother's womb, or that guns should be banned, or that every nation should have nuclear weapons, or no nation should be allowed to use coal as a fuel, or maybe you want to eradicate a certain sequence from the human genome because you believe it causes aggression or criminal tendencies or some other characteristic that you would be rid of in your perfect world. The point is that you don't find the status quo acceptable and believe your change is 'good' based on your own moral compass. But as with any change, some people will agree with you, some people will disagree with you and most people don't care and/or are easily convinced or ignored if you have sufficient 'power'.

Remember that one man's activist is another man's cult leader. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. You may think you are Gandhi but to some people you are Hitler. Are you willing to take that chance? Even if you do nothing, someone else will come along with their own moral compass and enact their own vision intended to change on the world for the better, which may or may not be to your liking. You are asked to stand up and fight for what you believe in but so is the guy in front of you facing in the opposite direction.

As much as every righteous person in the world would like to believe that their moral compass is accurate, that god is on their side, that theirs is the side of good, the side of justice, the side of truth, there can be no such assurance for anyone. There is no good or evil. There is no right or wrong. There is only our way and their way.

The morality of society is always changed by people with various types of power, be it military might (WW2 or the French war of independence) or the power of persuasion/manipulation (eg. Gandhi or Hitler or modern day politics) or the proliferation of Pandora's box-like scientific knowledge (Nuclear technology or human genetic engineering). The rightness or wrongness of these people doesn't matter a damn. Good or evil is meaningless. Power decides everything.

If there is a way around this, then I don't see it. Perhaps, when we face a fundamental moral decision for which there is no convincing arguments, no common ground, no compromise, when we are forced to make a decision that will change our civilisation one way or another, we can either fight it out and see whose side is more powerful, or we can just cast dice.