What is morality? Where do we derive our morals. What are values? Brothers Mike and Steve are back and looking at what morality meas. This conversation is casual and full of examples that we all face day to day. Can our morals be our worst enemy?
Tune in and set what the guys have to say. Listen. Laugh. Learn
What is morality? Where do we derive our morals. What are values? Brothers Mike and Steve are back and looking at what morality meas. This conversation is casual and full of examples that we all face day to day. Can our morals be our worst enemy?
Tune in and set what the guys have to say. Listen. Laugh. Learn
Alright, we are back. We are absolutely back, and welcome to Josh. Being brothers this is a big brother, steve, and his big brother, mike. How you doing, man? I haven't seen you for a long time. I haven't seen you for a long time. Yes, I'm glad to see you again. We had some technical issues, so if we sound a little bit today, we're working on it, okay, but glad to be back.
Speaker 1:Steve said this is just being brothers. What's been going on, man? What's been going on with you? Well, just working my behind off, man. You know working over time. You know trying to get ahead in the race and now I go. You know, just doing those, doing that, doing that, doing that.
Speaker 1:I've been hustling myself, man. I've been, first by dealing with some health issues, because I'm older than most people and I'm working on my book and publishing. I'll talk about that a little bit later, maybe the next year we do, and that's it my little grandson's growing up. How's your other? How's your grandson doing? So I've got a couple of grandkids. The newest one, the newest one you're probably young and familiar with, is Avery. Oh, I got an Avery. My grandson's Avery. My oldest grandson is Avery. This is Avery girl, okay. So she's the newest, okay. Then I got a grandson Adonis, yeah, but I know him. And then the other ones are up walking and talking, but those are the baby babies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're all doing good. You know it's Halloween time. They're all excited. You know trick or treat coming up? Oh man, some new characters and it's time for you folks. Hey, if you're trick or treat, people go listen to our horror stories. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one, one of our most popular episodes.
Speaker 1:And you can also listen to me complain about why Halloween and Christmas are at the same time. I was in Lowe's the other day to drop a name and there I am looking at the Halloween things and I I glad to cross the aisle. Steve, see what Christmas trees? Well, you know, this morning on the news they were showing some camera at footage from different towns and one town has up Christmas lights already. It's ridiculous, totally. It's ridiculous. This is why I was complaining Totally. You already get me worked up already. I just don't get it, not even. First of all, halloween is not even here yet, and I know when Halloween's over, because they put the black jelly beans on sale and I go and buy two bags. Okay, I kind of get it. Okay, explain it to me before we get started. I'm just kind, I'm thinking, I'm down to listen. You know, including but not including.
Speaker 1:They want you to start thinking about spending that money, but then the flip side of that is that is such. That's probably one of the well, I think it's the most popular holiday that families get together and it's such a good time and joyous season that they want to get that in that feeling of joy and happiness and family together as soon as they can. So they want to. So they want to start in October to get you thinking about going to visit your relatives. Hey, I'm here, okay, I'm here. Just maybe I don't know Is it Christmas and shooting upon Halloween season or is it Halloween and shooting upon Christmas season?
Speaker 1:So I don't think it's neither. I think Halloween's got its place. It's always going to have its place because it's a kid dominated thing. So it's going to always be there. But in the background, yeah, but in the background. You know adults know it's coming because it involves kids getting gifts for kids. So they know it's coming. Kids aren't. Kids aren't really thinking Christmas yet. They're thinking candy, yep, right now, and then after the candy goes, then they'll start thinking Christmas.
Speaker 1:I believe that's how I figured it out. I just figured it out. Okay, good, here's why they do it. Okay, this is and this is from no MBA, no Harvard School of Business, this is just me saying they put the Christmas stuff up almost simultaneously with the Halloween stuff and they have the prices on it so people can go like, whoa, don't go out here and overspend on this side of the aisle, because if you look right across on the other side of the 200 dollar Christmas trees ornament, you see that also is expensive, so pick your poison on that. Okay. Okay, and for me it's Christmas and the candy thing kind of goes almost hand in hand with Christmas. Yes, both of them are. Yeah, you know there's a lot of Christmas candy, halloween candy, candy candy. So that might be another reason to, I guess me.
Speaker 1:It depends on you know what, bobby, what we're going to talk about today, and that people's values, people's morals, what you learned about Christmas and the importance of Christmas or not, or not some people in place, the same importance. There was a day that you go in your neighborhood at Christmas time. You see every house decorated, lit up, but now you know your neighbors may not be Christians. Your neighbors may be Muslims or some other non Christian denominations, or Christians that don't celebrate, or atheists okay, or absolutely, which we talked about on our show. We did about church, so maybe that's the reason. But, steve, what you have, you have the floor today.
Speaker 1:So we're going to jump down that dangerous narrow, skinny but wide. Morals, values and ethics it's skinny but wide. Do you have any? Do you use them? Where'd you learn them from? What are they? All those things we're just going to cover what we feel is they are and where they may have gone, and etc. Etc. Etc.
Speaker 1:So let me just jump right on in here. Right, morals, morals. What are morals? Concerned with the principle of right and wrong and the goodness and the badness of human character. So morals are concerned with the goodness and the badness of human character, holding high principles for proper conduct. You got me, you got me a little bit lost and tell me about that.
Speaker 1:Okay so, and I read this when I was doing my research and it goes to believe it or not, wanting to have power and control over people. So let's say, for example, I'll just, I'll just throw this one out there, so you didn't tie your shoe up so you won't have to eat your. And so I say, man, tie your shoe up. Okay, you tie your shoe up. Now that person has a little bit of power over you because you tied your shoe and you did something that they wanted you to do and now you look a little bit better. All right, so they anything. So they use it to make you kind of like, you know, it's a way to keep power over people who don't have maybe a good idea or a no, right from wrong. I got it.
Speaker 1:And then a little definition here says morals are basically values Are those preferences that are integral to any moral reasoning process. So what makes sense? You got shoes on which means they should be tied. Okay, so I see where you're going with that. So then let's go through this three different ones.
Speaker 1:So now, values, right, are person's principles or standards of behavior, one's judgment of what is important in life. Yep, okay, that is your, what you value, what you value. And you could have the same moral code and have different values and have different values. Okay, some people couldn't could say I believe in my morals. Tell me that you get nothing for free. It's hard work and dedication to get you where you're going. And I could say I agree with that, steve, you and I are the same. But then you could say based on that, I'm going to get out of high school, go right to work and build me a business, and that fits, that's. Those are now your values. I'm like no, I value formal education over that. So my values say no, formal education. But morally we're both the same. I don't know if that would be my values If I said I wanted to get out of high school and do that. That would be more like a choice that I wanted to do. I don't think that's going to be a value. Give me an example of a value.
Speaker 1:So values is so behavior for one's judgment. So the young lady is sitting over there and she's chewing with her mouth open and you say, excuse me, you chew it with your mouth open. That's because your value say don't chew with your mouth open. She doesn't even know that chewing with her mouth open is kind of a rank right. And she continues to chew with her mouth open and so that causes you to do something behavior wise, to try to correct her. All right. And then another person does something and they do and they overdo it. They may say they may call her out her name and say something to it, you know, to get her to close her mouth while she's chewing. Well, you may just try to use choice words and be kind when you try to correct someone. So how does it all to do with you know how you correct somebody? And once again it goes to like making you the right person and making them the wrong person and trying to get them to do the right thing versus doing the wrong thing. Okay, so, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, moral sets up for a society or a group of people, what is right and what is wrong, yeah, one's behavior of what is important in life. You know, okay, yeah, yeah. And so what would be on the list of somebody's morals? Um, some morals, values are not. Cheating, okay. Telling the truth, uh. Being generous, okay, it could be part of it. All, right. Loyalty, okay. Retroding lost money Okay, I guess that's honesty. Okay, uh, keeping someone else's property. You know that's, you know that's not a thing that you want to do, you know, okay. So let me keep going before, because we're gonna, we're gonna mix all these up and there's one more. Okay, so ethics, exactly, I'm gonna ask you about ethics, morals, values, now, ethics.
Speaker 1:Ethics are principles that govern a person's behavior or conduct of an activity. Okay, all right, thank you. And once again, it's pretty much the same thing. So it's the same that this example's on the same thing Tell the truth, not cheating. So I'm in a marriage, okay, and I've been in a marriage for and this is an example and I've been in a marriage for 15 years, I've been a saint, and my brother, of course, he's been in a marriage for 15 years, he's been a saint, okay, and then one day I decide to step out of that marriage, okay, and maybe have an affair. And my brother says, hey, man, uh-uh, you know that ain't right man, you know that is not right man, you need to, like, you know you marry this person, you need to honor those vows and stick with it. And I say, man, heck with that, I'm doing it anyway. So my ethics, okay, all right, my ethics are my personal behavior on the conducting of an activity. So the activity I'm doing is like stepping out. So my morals now, my ethics now, have changed, yeah, changed from being a loyal husband to stepping out on my spouse, yeah, and kind of doing. So that's ethics, yeah, based on your behavior, of an activity and based a little bit on your moral compass, for example.
Speaker 1:For example, you and I are coaches okay, we're football coaches and we're also friends, we're brothers okay, but we're playing each other next Friday night and you came by my house and we just talked about anything, but again, we didn't talk about the game, we talked about brotherly stuff. But then, when you left, I noticed that, oh my God, what is this? Oh, my Steve left his playbook. Steve left his playbook. You don't even know what I brought over this first week. You know, let's just say you had it, okay. I just say you had it. Okay, come on, work with me here, work with me here. I'm working baby, that's all I do. So is that my house? And I'm like I'll be done. I don't know why he brought it over here either, but here's Steve's playbook and it's full of everything for next Friday night.
Speaker 1:Do I look at? Yes, you do. Do I look at? Yes, you do. Do I tell you that I will? No, you don't. Okay, now we're talking to here we go. Now we're talking ethics, would it be? So? Here's my question to you okay, is it ethical to look at it? And if I do, is it ethical to tell you that I looked at it? And number three, is it ethical if I you call when you say might I think I left my playbook at your house and I go, playbook, what playbook? Ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha. Remember, I'm in a competitive situation with you. I'm in a competitive situation with you. Okay, I got 40 kids out there who want to win next Friday night. You might Now do my ethics change Because, say that John Smith left his book at my house and John Smith not even in my division.
Speaker 1:I never played John Smith. That changes the ethics a little bit, does it not? It does. I still should return his playbook, but I'm still gonna look at it. I'm still gonna look at it. I'm still gonna look at it. Ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha. I think.
Speaker 1:I think, because the key here is gonna be the word is game. It's a game. It's not necessarily life. It's not a game of life, it's a game. And because you are my brother, I do want to win, I do want to defeat you and vice versa, you want to defeat me. So if I can get an edge, if I can get an edge, I'm gonna look at your playbook man and I might even tell you, like man, I'm with you, your playbook man, because the bottom line to me is well, you gotta stop me. You still gotta stop me. You can have all my plays. You gotta stop me. Your kids ain't seen them, only you seen them. You still gotta stop me.
Speaker 1:Now, what if you're like okay, now I'm not your brother, I did leave my playbook in your car. You gotta stop me. I'm looking at your playbook. I'm looking at your playbook. I'm looking at your playbook. Are you gonna tell me, did you, did it? Yeah, I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you. And when are you gonna give it back to me? After the game, the next, the next time? Exactly, I don't even know when. You need to come back. Get this playbook before I memorize it, make copies, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 1:Now there's a real close thing right there, because I can tell you that some people out there, they would go like man. You know, I found your playbook Saturday morning after the game, man, I don't know where. It must have been under something in my house. Other people take it right back to them, but some people would keep that thing and hold that advantage until the very last minute. So under the coaching tree, under the coaching tree, I don't think the majority of coaches real coaches, let me put that in there Real coaches are gonna mind because today I'm coaching against you, next, next year I'm coaching with you. That could be Alright. So you know, and you know I could have your plays, you could have my plays, but in the bottom line you gotta stop them, and you don't know my tweaks. Well, because the plays down there. You don't know how I tweak them. That's true.
Speaker 1:Let's take another situation Ethics and values. I'm gonna go back to the relationship then, because people can relate to that Everything's tickety boo. I've got a good buddy it could be you, my brother or whatever and I see this guy doing something that's totally against at least the values that I have and the ethics that I have Cheating on his lady, cheating in a card game. I see my man cheating and I'm watching him play cards. I see him cheating. Okay, I know he's cheating. Okay, how do I handle this? He's not cheating against me. I'm watching him play cards if he dies, whatever and he's cheating. Or I see him stepping under the woman. Do I keep my mouth shut on that or do I speak on it. If I speak on it, who do I speak to? Him or his lady? Him or the person that's being cheated on? What does ethics, morals and values say about that? Because some people cheating is hey, that's just part of the game. Man, you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. I don't see cheating as being a negative. Other people would rather die than cheat.
Speaker 1:So I think all of that comes from your upbringing, where who raised you, what you learned in your household, what church you went to, what you learned at your church, your grandparents, all those things. All those things kind of rushing to a ball and making yours decisions. You know, grandma Lucy was like boy, you're better not, you better, you better not, but you better not. And then you, and then, and then grandpa Larry was like you know what your grandma gonna do, and then your mom say I can't wait to do it. I wish you would. I wish you would. So we get that all. So we begin to set that sets our moral compass, anybody that we know respect and love. Yeah, setting the way that they think.
Speaker 1:So when that moment comes, you either reflect on that. It was already there, it's already built in, it's been built into you from a little kid all the way up, right, so you should know what to do. It's the outside influence that hasn't had that. That will tempt you to do something that is not good. Alright, and that's what you have to do. That's what your virus coming in, you're like no, I ain't doing that, man, cause I know where my Lucy would say, I know what my mother would do and I know what I'm gonna do and that's I'm gonna do the correct thing. I'm gonna not choose. Well, the correct thing based on your values, based on my values.
Speaker 1:And I go back to maybe people saw this on YouTube these young man is no longer with us because he decided is in Florida in a small little fast food carrier that he was gonna smack this lady with his fist and he says I miss you, say another way of my punch you right in your face. Okay, she would already tell her son to go out to the car and get the gun. I saw that he punched her. The kid shot him. He did, he did. Okay, his values did that to him. That's right Somewhere along you and I know we have, we have two sisters, and Steve and I were mainly raised with it, with the older sister.
Speaker 1:Okay, we better not look at her cross-eyed, okay, much less put our hands on. We learned early you don't hit girl, right, you don't hit girl. You don't hit your sister. You don't hit your cousin. We have two family. We have two female cousins. You don't hit your cousins, okay, but she hit me first. You find another way to deal with it. You do not hit women boys, men know it. Women, boys don't hit girls.
Speaker 1:Apparently, this guy never had that because he was very open about it in front of a lot of people. He didn't push this lady. Then she said this later he basically punched this lady, his son, who I guess was taught his values by his mom, which probably was you protect your mom at all times. My man with no values punched his mom, punched his woman and her son shot him. Yeah, and the police led to it like you, good, you can go, yeah, they let him go, they let him go, yeah, yeah, because if we were all in that, if we were all in those shoes, we would probably do the same thing. Everybody, except for the guy who punched the woman, had the same moral compass, right, had the same moral compass, right, jackie. And who's in the field, police, the cops, everybody you know, except for him. I don't know where he got that from. Exactly as you said, the road map, moral, set the road map for any kind of society, family, school I was with.
Speaker 1:I had the pleasure of being at Steve's school earlier today when he had his kids out and even within there there's a culture starting with the fact that the kids wear uniforms. The parts at the tops are dark blue and the bottoms are khaki. I didn't see anybody walking around. They were dark, with dark blue bottoms and khaki on top. It was blue on top, khaki on bottom, be it shorts, skirts, whatever. That's part of the culture that was set, a couple of other things that you know. Steve said that the kids knew right away what that meant. That's part of the culture he had said, if not for the school, at least for his classroom In his classroom. This is the way we behave. Okay, and I could just see once again early we learn what behavior is.
Speaker 1:For the most time, for the most part, it depends on a couple of things you know the values that you have, the money that you have, your social economic status. Some people think that you have the more money you have, the less moral you need to be, the more money you have. You know, I know that's what society says, but I have money, so I can do this. My morals are different than yours. Some people think the less money that you have, my morals are different too, because I don't have money either, so I can act a fool, I can steal from you, I can hold you up. Okay, so it all comes from, I guess, your perspective, how you establish your moral, and then, of course, last, is your values. Are you Christian? Do you have Christian based values, et cetera. I just think they're all getting out of hand right now, though. All right. So then there's one more. It's not really one more, but it's the same, but they have.
Speaker 1:It's the noun morality, morality, all right. Morality is the behavior and beliefs that a society deems acceptable, right. For example, I'm just going to say, you know, stopping at a red light. You know we all expect everybody to stop at a red light, everybody that drives a car. We expect them to stop at a red light. Okay, okay. So that's part of that. That would be more All right. So, everything that people deem acceptable, telling the truth, telling the truth, okay, you know.
Speaker 1:However, within my morality, I believe telling the truth is best, but I also believe that, based on my values, I'm going to tell a lie if I need to. I'm going to tell a lie to protect my family. That's right. To protect my family, okay. Protect my many, protect my things that I love. I won't look you in your face and tell you a lie. Yes, if I think so. Now I'm within that morality. I still have certain values, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:On the other hand, there's, you know, thou shalt not steal, don't steal, don't steal, okay. But if somebody had something that's been just laying there in the clear blue sky, okay, I open it. It's a wallet no name, no number, no info, just some money. Is that stealing? Or, if I that wallet has Joe Jones' name on it and I take it, is that stealing Wallet just laying there? I don't know, joe Jones, I don't know if that would be stealing or just be opportunistic. Okay, you know, that goes back to your, to your value. That goes back to your value. Yeah, yeah, I must say you know what I mean. I would never.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was in I hate to admit this in college, somebody got the test, okay, you know, and that happened. Somebody got the test, yeah, and people were passing the test around and there were a couple of guys that, like they didn't snitch. They were like, nope, pass me. Yeah, I'm not going to look at the test. Y'all go ahead. Yeah, I'm not going to say anything. You can tell me, but I ain't going to look at it. Yeah, I know I'm not going to tell anybody. You guys are out here cheating, yeah, yeah, but my value is that I'm not going to Right. Okay, and we still have the same morality. Yeah, his value is saying I'm going to earn this. My value is saying I'm going to get it. See, any way I can. And you know what? They just did a thing. I have to admit. It was online. They did a survey and it and about asked the question was how many people cheated in college? Oh, and the number was extremely high. I want to say I think it was 85% of people cheated when they were in college. Yeah, wow, yeah, include me in this. I think I think we're all. I think we're all. Maybe not all, but if there's an opportunity to achieve something wrong or illegally without getting caught or someone else knowing about it, we're going to take advantage of it and you know what, as sad as that is maybe it's not sad I think it's true.
Speaker 1:Something is simple as I'm playing baseball, I hit a ball. I think I can get a triple of this. Okay, touch first place Clearly missed. Second base Clearly missed, clearly missed. Second, I know I missed it, the Upsaw me missed it. I slide in the third, okay, and they go like triple, great hit, great hit, great hit, got a triple. And the next batter comes up. I'm not going to go hey, wait a minute, wait, wait, you know what I missed second. Yeah, you missed second.
Speaker 1:My, my morals tell me you know you didn't touch second base. My morals tell me that you know this isn't really a triple, but my values say this is important to me. Okay, it's not like I, you know somebody dropped there a while and I saw it right there. It's not like somebody walked off and left their car lights on. Hey, me help you out there If I can get away with this. I didn't intentionally miss second base. I didn't do it to deceive. But isn't it somebody else's job To tell me, hey, you miss second base, okay, so, yeah, so the odd things I think we get away with, you know, maybe not running a red light, but maybe sort of getting an edge on the red light. I think we do that and I think it's governed by back to what you said, our morals and those things are governed by Values, yeah, which is going by who raises, who raised us and what their beliefs were? No question, no question, going back hundreds of years actually. Well, I think you said really, you know, religion is part of it. I think even culture is Part of it.
Speaker 1:For example, you see somebody get caught in the United States. A High politician gets caught doing something totally illegal stealing, taking bribes, whatever. The first thing they do is worse. To find a way to get out of it, go get the best lawyer. They can deny, deny, deny. Big Clinton used to say wasn't me, it must have, I've been made the mistake of the oversight. But in the Japanese culture, those people immediately resigned in disgrace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and sometimes not Lately, but back in the day, harry Carrie suicide, yep, yeah, it was. It was not out of the question, it was not seen as a cowardly way, it was almost an honorable thing. Yeah, it was an honorable. You need to go kill yourself after making that move. Yeah, you messed up, go kill yourself, I'll buy. You say no, no, I'll buy. Say deny, try to get away with it Whatever. You get a good lawyer. Or they say Try it again, just go back and try it again. They put in what it is you know, and even that you know. You made a good point.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, when people get away with things, they know that ethically and morally wrong, but it get away with it anyway. There's two kind, there's two behaviors that only two. One I'm never doing that again. That was a close shave. The second one is what? Hey man, gotta worry with it. One time I might be able to get it. I might be able to get by the night. Where, where are our ethics? Advice do you think Americans lead the rest of the world with our vows of people copy what we do? Oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:American values are a mixture of every immigrant that came into this country. I think you know we learned some, some of my values from Irish people, from Italian people, from African people, from Asian people, from Europeans. I think all our values are From these people that they met or who we're here hundreds of years ago, who taught each other this and that there's more culture though. Yeah, culture, yeah, cultures included in it. But I'm sure you know, you know, if At times, an Italian was working with Irish men and they worked together for 10 or 15 years and there are some things that might have rubbed off on them that they didn't do that, now they do. You know, yeah, and even it's from the smallest thing, from a gift-giving concept, you know, maybe maybe you didn't give gifts on a certain day, on Christmas, to a certain person, why this person over here is giving gifting more, and now I'm saying you start gifting more. It's little things like that. That's true, I like that. That's the because.
Speaker 1:Here's a value that take the late, great, funny lady, joan Rivers, who's Jewish, very Jewish, but she had a Christmas tree in her home every year yeah, how about that? And she gave gifts Yep, yep to her Christian friends and received gifts from her Christian friends, to which some people said hey, what are you doing? She said these are also my friends and I treat my friends the way that I want to be treated and I want to be treated this way. So I treat my friends. It's their holiday. I have no right to ignore it and then call those people my friends. Those are her values. Other Jewish people say, nah, you know you're stepping outside the line a little bit. That's not our holiday, that's a Christian holiday. Yeah, so values you know are within your morals and then I guess you know the ethics part come. But how you act on those fights. So your morals are, your morals are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got, we got a wrap up in about half an hour. Let me just make. See you want to go ahead and see we do a quick part Two of this. We have enough for a part two. Oh yeah, I got plenty more. I got plenty more things to do on this, some things I want to talk about, some more examples of that, etc. Etc. But it's how to make this a part two.
Speaker 1:So if I could get to, I can get the music playing. Maybe I can get that. If not, state, we've been having problems technically, guys. I said so we can't get our music going. But I speak brothers, big brother, mike. Hang on a second. Big brother Mike's got to get it fixed right there. Why don't you get it? While he's doing that, this little brother, steve, and you've been listening to just me and brother. Hope you enjoyed the episode on more guys. We're gonna come right back, back it right up and do okay, so we can say goodbye. From now we don't have any theme music, okay, but signing off right now it's big brother Mike, this little brother, steve, and this is just being brothers and we will be back with theme music. Okay, to talk about part two of morals and values. Once again, remember we want you to do three things, and that's just listen, laugh and learn. Yeah, all right, talk to you, bye, bye.