Societies must institutionally structure compassion because individual morality fails

Evidence

As this book extensively documents, the exercise of morality is not entirely an intrapsychic matter. Morality is socially grounded. Given the many psychosocial devices for disengaging moral self-sanctions, societies cannot rely solely on individuals, however righteous their moral standards. Regardless of the sphere of life, otherwise considerate people can behave cruelly yet retain positive self-regard. To function humanely, societies must establish social systems that uphold compassion and curb cruelty. Regardless of whether social practices are carried out individually, organizationally, or institutionally, it should be made difficult for people to delete humanity from their actions. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2990 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

As this book extensively documents, the exercise of morality is not entirely an intrapsychic matter. Morality is socially grounded. Given the many psychosocial devices for disengaging moral self-sanctions, societies cannot rely solely on individuals, however righteous their moral standards. Regardless of the sphere of life, otherwise considerate people can behave cruelly yet retain positive self-regard. To function humanely, societies must establish social systems that uphold compassion and curb cruelty. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2990 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Some ordinary people, normally law-abiding, unassuming, non-rebellious and unadventurous, stood up to those in power and, oblivious to the consequences, gave priority to their own conscience – much like those few, scattered, singly acting people, who defied the omnipotent and unscrupulous power, and risked the ultimate punishment trying to save the victims of the Holocaust. One would search in vain for social, political or religious ‘determinants’ of their uniqueness. Their moral conscience, dormant in the absence of an occasion for militancy but now aroused, was truly their own personal attribute and possession – unlike immorality, which had to be socially produced. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 476 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Moral restraint fails unless social systems structurally uphold it — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2990; Societies must build systems that make cruelty difficult, not rely on individual morality — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2990; Morality precedes society and society merely manipulates an already-existing moral structure — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 514 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Societies must build systems that make cruelty difficult, not rely on individual morality #corroborates (0.96) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2990
• Moral restraint fails unless social systems structurally uphold it #corroborates (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2990
• Moral resistance is personal while immorality requires social production #complicates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 476
• Moral capacity arises socially but not from societal institutions #complicates (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 499
• Moral responsibility can compel insubordination to socially upheld principles #complicates (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 495
• Humanizing societies have not steadily expanded the range of morally condemned pain #complicates (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 565