Received moral imperatives often mask what we actually care about.
Evidence
It is so much easier to know what we ought to think and feel than what we actually do. Worthy authorities constantly exhort us to care about worthy causes, only a few of which really touch us, whereas what we do care about at any given moment may seem trivial, egotistical, or self-serving. — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 64
Categorization
- SEED: Could become an essay on how ‘worthy causes’ pressure writers and citizens to perform care rather than discover it.
- XREF: connects to: Obligation arises when social pressure and general demand for conformity are intense — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 299; People forget their purpose while being carried by societal pressures. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 179; Moral obligations derive from objective ideality, not from society or individual will — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 356 (+5 more)
Related
- People feel moral obligations they never actually agreed to. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Moral obligations derive from objective ideality, not from society or individual will
#complicates(0.82) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 356 - Ethical merit requires the conquest of contrary impulses
#expands(0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 243 - People forget their purpose while being carried by societal pressures.
#expands(0.50) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 179 - Obligation arises when social pressure and general demand for conformity are intense
#contradicts(0.40) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 299