Curious

(Switching dramatically in mood from the previous meme....)
Question Number Seven

Is there anyone you've ever known whom you've honestly felt morally superior to?
I've been trying to answer this in my head all week, since Curious Kitty posted it on Monday.

The version of my answer I'd like to use is "No, because that would be elitist."

But honesty compels me to say, "Everyday, at least 10 times."

And I don't like the fact that I have come face to face here with a part of myself that isn't very attractive. On the other hand, we have to be able to make appropriate distinctions between "acceptable" and "unacceptable."

I like to think that I don't believe that one person is inherently superior than someone else. However, the fact is that some people are morally superior to others. Churchill was morally superior than Hitler. People who run homeless shelters are morally superior to child pornographers. The vast majority of people are morally superior to serial killers.

It's easy when you look at the ends of the spectrum. It's less simple when you look at the Crazy Screaming Dude melting down at the Reference Desk compared with the Rulebound Bureaucrat rejecting his request to look up his internet account. Who is right? Who is morally superior in that case? Who is a better person?

Is someone who has had multiple sex partners before getting married inferior to someone who waited till he was married before he became a sex addict?

Is someone on the City Council morally superior to a skater?

OK, so yeah, I think I'm morally superior to quite a lot of people. I just wonder if that feeling is justified on every occasion.

My answer, finally, is yes: my brother-in-law, the alcoholic, who has essentially thrown away the last 11 years of his life (plus a few years before my sister died).


I think the opposite question is just as interesting: Is there anyone you've ever known whom you've honestly felt morally inferior to?

My answer for that is also yes: lots of people at assorted churches I've attended.