Do You Really Want to Live Without Standards?

Do You Really Want to Live Without Standards?

or

What would your world be like without the benefits of standards?

A Story

It was as perfect as perfect could be.  My car Ruth was running flawlessly.  Full sized Ford, 3.8 liter, re-chipped with high performance computer chip, after market air intake upgrade, Dyna-tuned, and wide, flat, freeway as far as the eye could see.  The roadway was warm but the air at dusk was cooling, just what Ruth liked.  The car had the police pursuit rated suspension and she cornered like a champ except there were no corners that night.

Ruth itched to go and the cool of the evening did nothing to discourage her.  Soft easy listening though upbeat music was on the radio.  It was a great night to travel and travel the two of us did.

I had pulled onto the freeway some miles back and try as I might I could not see a speed limit.  No signs on the on-ramp and no signs for the ten miles we had come.  Every couple of miles I ramped it up a bit.  The car positively loved 80 and she purred like a contented kitten.  Since there was no posted speed limited I tried 90 and she loved it even more.  Then came 100 and 110, we were flying low. 

Then came 120 and then came the flashing reds and blues.  Well, no posted speed limit so, no harm, and no foul.  Officer friendly carefully came up the driver’s side as I rolled down my window.  He identified himself and asked, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” 

“No” I said, “I really don’t know.” 

“You were speeding,” He responded. 

“I was? What is the speed limit through here?”

It was then that he responded, “I don’t know, I don’t believe one is posted here, and in reality there is no law governing speed along here.”

He continued, “It is what I say it is and when I say it is.”  Then to further confuse the issue he went on, "On the other hand it can be what you want it to be."  

Now he did not seem like anything but an good and honest cop and so I felt free to ask, “Then why did you stop me, if there is no speed limit?”

His answer beats all, “Well, it just seemed like the right thing to do since you were in the wrong.  Well, unless you feel like you were in the right.”

Now for the Question:  “How could I have been in the wrong with no posted standard?”

Recently I read a post on a particular Facebook site.  It was to the effect that the right thing to do is to be courteous to others, do what is right, and be a good person. 

The question then was by what standard do you measure such things?  The response was that it was how he was raised.  Never mind that he did not answer my question, let's look at it this way.

Just as the police officer in my story had no standard by which to measure my behavior, so too the person that wrote the response had no standard by which to measure what was and is right and wrong.  In other words he lived by his families moral standard which of course changes from family to family, culture to culture, and history to history.  

Now if families, cultures, and historical eras were isolated from one another that might be well and good.  However, because families connect with other families and cultures with other and differing culture unless there is some common concept of right and wrong, trouble will soon be coming. 

What the writer failed to realize is that there are universal, objective, and I believe transcendent ethics.  They are the standard by which all mankind can judge good and bad, right and wrong, genuine reality and falsehood.  Without such as the case, each man becomes a law unto themselves and man’s relationships with man (the foundation of culture) unravel.