Humanity always considered questions of morality as an important feature of civilized existence, of social coherence, even assumed that morality was an essential part of religious theism and faith, as we always assumed that god is supposedly the optimum moral entity. Morality was always a key criterion for respectability toward any individual or group, be it political, social, economic or religious.
Professor Jonathan Haidt, who calls himself a morality psychologist, has proposed six attributes, calling them the foundation of human moral behavior, they come as follows; 1- Care/harm, operating out of kindness and concern, never harming others. 2- liberty/oppression, enhancing opportunities for others, and not constraining them. 3- Fairness/cheating, as in acting in a way that the community considers to be impartial and honest, not taking advantage of others. 4- Loyalty/betrayal, being faithful to commitments and obligations. 5- Authority/subversion, properly exercising power and control given by others, not subverting them. 6- Sanctity/degradation, upholding sacredness of the dignity and rights of others as human beings, not deprecating them.
Haidt discusses in details how individuals and groups' differences with respect to these attributes play out in human interaction of all kinds, including politics. I'm going to apply those, or the lack of them, to four different political entities in our actual times, three are represented by individual leaders and their oligarchies, the fourth one by an ideology and religious fervor. I'm going to site Israeli Zionism, Bashar Assad of Syria and his oligarchy, Vladimir Putin with his oligarchy and Donald Trump with his family and oligarchy.
The first through their collective acts against an entire indigenous people of different religious and ethnic origins under their occupation. The second through his behavior during a 12 years civil war against his own people. The third through his behavior toward all his neighboring countries, the entire world peace and stability, to top it by invading twice and brutally annihilating Ukraine. The fourth through his acts and his behavior while president, after loosing and denying it, and being a major part of destroying democracy and stability in his country.
The four regimes as a matter of fact share most if not all of these attributes sited by the above mentioned professor, and each proved it for long enough time through unchecked cruelty and brutality, even bestiality. The four continue to affirm their religiosity, to the same Abrahamic religious faith; Jewish, Muslim, and Christian in all their different denominations. Technically the four of them claim to be driven by religious morality.
The four of them endanger not only their immediate neighboring countries and peoples, but world safety and harmony, the four of them share the same ideological dogmas of total supremacy, hegemony and an upper look and attitude at every one under their control. The four of them come from exactly the same school of thought, and act in the same methodologies and tactics. Of course there are many more who share fully these principles presently on the world scene, as well as historically through the times.
The West in general, including America did the same during their past, only with a major difference, Western populations always managed to convince themselves of acting with morality while executing their devilish atrocities throughout the times against other races and populations. The four mentioned regimes don't even come close, or bother to justify their immorality and bestiality. Again, a wrong act never justifies another wrong act, brutality and cruelty here doesn't justify other cruelty and brutality there, every act should be judged on its own merits and facts, then praised or condemned appropriately.
There are large individual differences in what people regard as the base of morality and how they behave with respect to one another, but here in our case those four regimes and individuals broke every rule of decency and fair accepted morality. For humanity it had always been, and still is in our times, that a human being without the feeling of modesty, morality and deference is not human.
My usual many thanks to all.
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