Morality play

It sure is nice every once in a while as I'm wading through the gossipy superficial slop that passes for online news to find something of genuine substance and interest. Thank the folks at MSNBC for this one, an article which explains what recent research illustrates about the inner workings of human morality. Given that decision-making based on moral assessment is one of the defining characteristics of human beings that separates us from other life forms, it's more than a little interesting to take an inside look at how our moral compass actually functions and where rationalization comes into play. The study described in the article suggests that "we are intuitively moral beings," but that "when we are given time to think about it, we construct arguments about why what we did wasn’t that bad." The fact that people are able to rationalize actions that most would reflexively identify as wrong is at the root of more modern problems than there is space here to list.