Living a Moral Existence

How does one define living the moral life?

Not long ago, the college hosted Big Conversations, a day to think about what's important in life. In preparation for the day, posters were put up to raise awareness, asking "In 25 years will your children ask why you didn't do more to stop genocide?" These posters specifically meant to bring up our actions with respect to human rights bring up larger issues. We live in the top 10% of the world in terms of privilege, which grants us general isolation from such issues as genocide, but also isolates us from extreme poverty and inequity in the world. Life is comfortable in the first world, but how much should we be concerned that this comfort is limited to the first world? How do we justify spending money on a new CD or a bottle of wine when the same money could drastically improve someone's quality of life? Perhaps even save a life?

Moreover, the United States, as an industrialized nation, produces more than a proportional amount of waste in the world while consuming a more than proportional share of the natural resources. As we near peak oil, Americans continue to drive inefficient vehicles. As global warming becomes more of a reality, instead of a theory, Americans continue to demand high levels of electricity. How should we be approaching resource allocation from a moral point of view? Do the advances made by Americans justify the vast amount of resources consumed and wastes produced? Does the future of our planet matter or can we leave the consequences to future generations?

Educationally, people in the United States have access to an unfathomable amount of resources. With internet access commonplace, the entire world of information is open to American students. How can we expect other, less privileged nations to compete on the global level without enabling them to have similar access? Further, even in the United States, the quality of education is not consistent. Some students attend failing schools that rarely pass standardized testing, while other student are privileged to a world of rich private schools or individual tutoring. Even at Olin we are aware that we've been given the chance to get an excellent education that is not available to everyone. Should we feel guilty for having the privilege of a stellar education? Should we be working to narrow the knowledge gap both domestically and abroad?

What is our responsibility to others? Are we allowed to ignore social problems that we don't see on a daily basis? Should we be nationalistic when trying to solve social problems? How much help should we give versus how much we should expect others to help themselves? The modern world is full of causes, which should we care about and how should we act if we do care?