There was a time for all us when life was straightforward. Our essential needs were met or else we would not now be alive. Then we began to sense the pull of the tyrants; Should and Should Not. We came to see that they could appear at the same time, pulling us in at least two directions at once. We felt like the criminal tied to horses and sentenced to be pulled apart.

And yet we were not criminals as we understood the concept. We merely became conscious of being in the world we are in; and the moral madness that exists within it. Our families, relatives, friends, leaders, governors all seemed to sing from different songbooks, each promoting their own as good and soliciting sometimes vulgarly, our buy-in to their system.

This was a period of consciousness in which unconsciousness was berated for its absence and sought for its relief. That was when many of us found our pass-times. Those habits of finding rest amid the pulling of the Should and Should Not tyranny.

I recall an actual event in which a dog was placed on the middle step of a staircase. Its former owner (having found the dog in a roadside bin; clearly the victim of a savaging such as dog-fighting) vied for its loyalty against the new owner of the dog – a relative who agreed to take it in after its roadside hero passed her on.

In the ensuing competition for the innocent creature’s love, the creature itself merely shook, shivered and cried, and I sometimes imagine, became conscious of the moral madness that existed within its world.

Families, Relatives, Friends, Leaders, and Governors might learn much from that little dog’s plight. Often they have a no more sophisticated set of ethics than those two family members competing for a dogs love. Imagine what they might do for a human love; a human loyalty?

We are often aware of this tearing apart of ourselves in society. Sometimes we feel like no more than an item of clothing or a priceless piece of silk, fought over by competing agents, whose true purpose is power, wealth, domination and comfort. We begin to see that for some of us; our status has been commoditized.  We are transferable things. Fought for, bought up and sold by retailers and wholesalers.

If there is any truth in this being thing rather than person, it is no excuse for our own moral madness. It is we who must take responsibility for our moral and ethical sanity; a sanity that might only be possible without the Should and Should Not tyranny.

I have seen human wreckage. I have seen despair, agony, and hell on earth; complete with demonic psychology at work. Yet I have seen these fall away, giving way to human restoration. And it all began with the withdrawal of shoulds and musts and have toos.

The implementation of opportunity, unconditional invitation and acceptance, along with tolerance and honesty; the brother and sister of stability, restored what was reduced to conscious misery. Morality might not be the root cause of all evil, but it might be that evil morality is.

If we are going to adhere to morality in our society; especially we ‘parents’, we might want to dedicate a great deal of effort in the healthy restoration of our own ethical structure. When even the dogs in our society shake, shiver and cry between morally mad masters; what might our children be feeling?

Criminalized? Torn? Despairing? Valuing unconsciousness?