Right and Wrong ... Pt. 2

"How do you differentiate between what is the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do?"

The question has bothered me belive it or not since I was probably around 5 - 7 years old. I think my brother kinda pop the question, in a non serious manner. Of course it is not this really about right or wrong at that time. Basically at that time we were playing (it was he who was playing and I was observing actually) Command and Conquer, yup the very first one, and he told me, "You know, I think there really isn't a good or a bad side, there is never a good and evil, there is never the case of the hero and the villain -- cause in the end what decides what is good and what is evil is just where you are standing at and where are you facing at?" ... Okay he didn't really say exactly THAT ... kinda spiced it up abit, but that doesn't matter, the important thing is the idea. The idea is logically speaking, if you are standing at one side, you will always see the opponent as the bad side -- at the same time the opponent will think the same way as you, he will think his side is right and your side is wrong.


It got me wondering till now which is the correct side, who is good and who is evil? What makes what you do everyday seems so right and what makes what you oppose everyday so wrong? Is it the matter of justice? Is it the matter of which side had the majority?Is it the matter of God said so? Is it the matter of what YOU want and what is BEST for youself? I could never answer that.


Somehow, everywhere I see the question pops up. I obviously do not know the answer to the question. Everytime the question pops up, only silence appear after in my mind. But honestly in the case of the movie, would I have done the same thing as the main private investigator? Where do I stand when the question of lawfully and ethically right versus virtuously right? Which so-called "right thing to do" has a higher precedence compared to the others? In fact right now let me rephrase what I just said... everytime this question pops up in my mind, I get more questions following behind it. It's just never ending.


For now, what is considered of upmost right is what I think is lawfully right. This above all should stand when I consider the right and wrong. The voice of the majority. Against the voice of majority I would surely have fallen not long before I start. After that it would probably be the matter of what suits me best -- what I THINK is right. Many people just don't notice it, but I can say everyone thinks that they are right, if not, everyone thinks something is right when it suits them. Call it selfish of whatever, but that is the nature of humans that I am not so happy about these days. Then again, "I" was formed first before "We" -- it is only obvious that Me, Myself and I stands before the We, They and You.


I think my argument is degrading in quality by the minute. I think I would stop here. Oh yeah another great example is the piracy of films and songs that have caused a great buzz in the news lately. Do you think it's wrong or do you think it's okay to do so? I used to think "Hey, when I have the money I will buy the original ones. Right now I will stick with the pirated ones thank you very much". Now that I have worked and I could say I am financially stable I say "Okay the time is now, I buy original ones only. Piracy is just so wrong". Then one day a couple of articles, and videos I have watched convinced me to switch side again, the idea of target market.


The basic idea about the whole argument is, let us say I am not really interested in this particular movie A, I have no intention of spending 10 bucks to watch it in cinema and I have no intention to buy the DVD that might cost me 50 bucks. Fine. One day I was just bored I decided I want to watch the movie. The movie wasn't bad. But it wasn't something worth spending my money on. So I went to my PC and downloaded it and watched it and deleted it. Now the question is : Is it right or is it wrong to download and watch it? Should it matter to the company who made the movie? (Okay that was two questions). By law, yes it matters, it's illegal and doing so is against the law. Simple as that. Another alternative is, it is wrong but it shouldn't effect the company. Why? Let's just say we remove piracy from the face of the earth, I've never heard of it and the only way to watch the movie was the cinema of the DVD, another question : Would I have contributed to the revenue/loses of the company and go/not go watch the movie or buy/not buy the DVD? The answer is simply no. I had no interest in the movie whatsoever in the first place. Anything I might have done without the existance of piracy will not effect the company. Simply because I wasn't in the target market in the first place.


Okay too much information is popping out of my mind right now that I need to stop and dip my head in the ice water. Gonna catch some snooze.