Just a reminder that morality and legality aren’t the same things.
If you think things like the Holocaust, racial segregation, and refusing to marry same-sex couples are “wrong”, remember that they were all legal in “the West” within the last 100 years (at least one of these things will be within our lifetimes for all of us, all three things for some of us). And also remember that efforts to oppose these things were often considered illegal at the time.
Don’t base your ideas of “right” and “wrong” on what is “legal” and “illegal”, as your moral framework will be incredibly flimsy and so will your moral compass - the thing that guides you through your life decisions, big and small - will be unreliable and you’ll end up lost and confused. But on top of asking ourselves “What is right? What is wrong? Where do my beliefs come from?”, also ask “What happens when doing the right thing is made illegal? What will I do?”.
These might seem like big/scary/difficult questions to ask and think about, but I genuinely believe you’ll have a much better idea of who you are, who you want to be, and how you’ll become that person if you do, and your moral compass will be reliable enough to navigate through whatever situations you face in life.
I’ve used a still from a scene in the 2016 film “Captain America - Civil War” not to trivialise (not to say that comic book movies are inherently trivial) but in case it makes the point a little more accessible and relatable. The context is admittedly very different - all these “superheroes” are discussing and debating whether they themselves get to choose when and where to act versus having a global authority (a fictious panel on the UN) dictate when and where they have to act - but Steve Rogers (Captain America) hones in on this point about morality and legality, framing it as doing what is right vs doing what is legal, when he asks:
“What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go?” What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don’t let us?
What I write in this post is especially relevant and particularly prompted by what’s being legally allowed to happen around the world today - especially in Palestine, the Congo, Sudan, etc. - despite what many of us know is the right thing to do. I leave you with this commentary from Indian author Arundhati Roy (currently being prosecuted by India’s Hindu nationalist government for expressing the view that Kashmir, a disputed region contested by India and Pakistan since 1947 - another mess and conflict, like Israel-Palestine, caused and imposed on others by the British Empire):
"The only moral thing Palestinian civilians can do apparently is to die. The only legal thing the rest of us can do is to watch them die. And be silent. If not, we risk our scholarships, grants, lecture fees & livelihoods.
If we say nothing about Israel’s brazen slaughter of Palestinians, even as it is livestreamed into the most private recesses of our personal lives, we are complicit in it.
The most heinous crimes, the most horrible declarations calling for genocide and ethnic cleansing are greeted with applause and political reward”
Arundhati Roy
Disclaimer: Yes there are lots of nuances to consider, especially with how we determine “right” and “wrong”, but they don’t invalidate the main point of morality and legality not being synonymous. And just to be clear: no I’m not trying to encourage breaking the law, but certainly that it needs to change at the very least.