Right and Wrong Are Perceptional Constructs
They don’t necessarily mean what you think they mean.
One of society’s most fascinating and terrifying truths is that it has an incessant need for over-simplification. Everything is increasingly shunted to one extreme or the other. The truth, however, is that nearly everything genuinely exists in grey and colored areas between any and all given extremes.
Most people live their lives between black and white, fat and thin, wise and foolish, and every other extreme you can name. Even positivity and negativity have a vast, flexible cylinder of sensations/feelings between them.
Oh, and they themselves are not static. Today’s positive is tomorrow’s negative.
This background is important because there is another conceptual notion akin to positivity and negativity with equal flexibility. Right and wrong.
Right and wrong vary wildly, are often entirely in the eye of the beholder, shift positions, and have a vast cylinder of space for other sensations/feelings between them. They are seldom clear and rigidly defined.
Right and wrong are perceptional constructs that we often give far too much power to. They frequently are used and abused to create artificial divisions that do way too much harm.
If you don’t believe me, look at the current presidential election in the US. One side is trying to use hope to build its case while the other uses fear. One side is trying to build new bridges while the other strives to knock them down and set them ablaze. Both sides use and abuse right and wrong to divide us.
This is why it’s important to recognize that right and wrong are perceptional constructs.
What is right and wrong?
Right and wrong are loosely defined. They’re incredibly flexible. And they regularly don’t mean what you think they mean.
Right is equated with good. Positive. Morally correct. True. Facts.
Wrong is equated with bad. Negative. Amoral or immoral. False. Lies.
If only it were that simple. Because it’s not.
Murder is unacceptable because life is precious. Murder in self-defense, however, is less wrong and grey because life is precious. Stealing to increase wealth is unacceptable because it inflicts harm. Stealing to feed a starving child is less unacceptable because you are preventing harm. All are “wrong”, but the degree and perception of wrong are wildly variable.
Right is equally complex. Right is also far more narrowly defined. A job is right for you when it causes no pain and harm. It ceases to be right when it overtaxes you mentally, emotionally, physically, and/or spiritually. A piece of milk chocolate is right until your tastes change and you prefer dark chocolate. Nothing here is absolute.
Just to add another wrinkle, today a person might be right and tomorrow they might be wrong. The definition itself is changed by tons of variables. For example, person “X” who is considered good and right today becomes bad and wrong tomorrow when they hurt or harm another (whether by words, deeds, and/or actions).
Hence, right and wrong are naught but perceptional constructs. Thus, applying them to huge groups and swaths of people makes very little sense. And yet, we do.
Refocus and redirect
The definition of right and wrong is utterly individual. It’s how you perceive your reality. That’s also why the perception of right and wrong often runs afoul of fact.
Flat Earthers are a perfect example of this. We have factual evidence, based in science and reason, photographic proof, and eyewitness accounts from orbit that the Earth is spherical. Still, some people believe it’s not a sphere, but a flat disk. They believe they’re right and the rest of us are wrong.
There is nothing to be done for the beliefs and values of other people. Yet effort is regularly expended to impose and shift these to one way or another. This is frequently how right and wrong get used and abused.
I can’t change your perception of the Life, the Universe, and Everything. Likewise, you can’t change mine. You and I can influence one another, but each of us is the only one who can alter or change anything.
Rather than get hung up on right and wrong, refocus. Turn inwards and apply active conscious awareness, right here and now. That mindfulness empowers you to more easily and honestly choose who, what, where, how, and why you are.
Right and wrong are not as important as people make them out to be. Recognizing this, you can work on yourself by creating and maintaining your own beliefs, values, and habits. That’s where your genuine perception of right and wrong truly exists.
From there, you can make more informed choices and decisions for your life experience. That empowerment opens all sorts of avenues to freedom and less stress, frustration, and fear.
You are worthy and deserving of that.
Recognizing the artifice of right and wrong isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that right and wrong are perceptional constructs that are frequently applied without conscious awareness, you can choose and decide to use mindfulness to see what they genuinely mean to and for you. Knowing that right and wrong are artificial, you can turn your focus inwards to recognize for yourself what they might mean and decide how to apply that to your daily life.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. With a broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, it can spread to those around you for their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred-and-fifty-seventh (557) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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