Why should we perform ethically right actions?

It is in our best interest to perform ethically right actions as a means to achieve the
ultimate good that is happiness. The very moral principles that society built and modified
over the years have continuously shaped and influenced each individual’s line of reasoning
regarding the judgment of what is ethically right and what is not. With a set moral principle
as a standard, each person participating in the same society has developed a personal moral
compass that allows them to weigh in their conscience when deciding what course of action
to take in moral dilemmas. In the perspective of the self, this internalized ideology influences
our behavior and in due time occurs as natural as breathing. Deciding to commit an unethical
act that goes against our familiar nature and upbringing requires a great amount of dedication
and energy since doing so requires fighting the expected course of behavior that the ideology
has come to ingrain within us. This energy-consuming act of going against the tides greatly
burdens our conscience in the form of guilt that will continue to weigh us down and pose as a
hindrance in our goal of attaining the ultimate good that is happiness. Failure to attain the
ultimate good of finding one’s own happiness due to carrying a heavy conscience upon
conducting unethical actions is then the same as leading an unfulfilling life with no purpose
or direction at all since we are unable to maximize our happiness whilst carrying these
negative emotions. In a perspective looking at its implication within society, choosing to
continue trudging on with committing unethical actions with the reasoning that it is beneficial
to you can likely cause consequential harm to other people within the same society. This can
either bring unhappiness to other individuals when their pain outweighs the pleasure, thus
posing yourself as the hindrance for other people’s journey in attaining the ultimate good, or
inspire other individuals in normalizing committing unethical actions for personal gain under
the reasoning that the unethical action is cancelled out by the good consequence it brings. The
former instance of going against this collective ideology of ethical practice that individuals
within said society share may result in hurting other individuals that can lead to ostracization
and a strong feeling of being a social outcast, while the latter inspires a harmful and self-
serving ideology within the people of the society that at any point can continuously blur the
barrier between ethical and unethical, thus enabling individuals to justify the unjust and find
loopholes to deem the wrong as right. Both instances cause chaotic disharmony within a
society that ultimately minimizes all types of pleasures and instead promotes maximization of
pain within and between individuals because with the way our conscience was nurtured, there
is no way around finding true happiness when you inflict pain to those around you. The
dismissal of choosing to conduct ethically right actions above all earthly and material desires
that does not even compare to the pleasures of experiencing life itself tends to lead us farther
away from attaining the ultimate good and breaks the bonds of life we share with those in the
same society. These then results in leading a meaningless and unfulfilling life because the
point of life itself is to connect with the world and find a place to belong in order to attain the
goal of experiencing the pleasures that life offers for us to explore.
Conducting ethically right actions helps us evolve to our ideal intellectual self that is
entirely separate and unique from other beings. What separates us from other species and
objects we coexist with in this world is our ability to utilize our reasoning and conscience.
Humans are gifted the ability to rationalize and think critically when taking a certain course
of action under the scrutiny of our conscience. By making use of such, we are able to discern
the benefits and setbacks of a certain action with consideration to its ethical value and
capacity to maximize pleasure. With the values and standards that we have inherited from our
ancestors, it has become our primary nature to lean towards performing ethical actions. This
continuous usage of our unique gifts differentiates us from other species and objects in this
realm, allowing us to evolve further our line of reasoning through time and pass it onto future
generations to continue working towards attaining the ideal self that is in harmony with the
world. Due to the humans’ strong need to belong in a special way and find a role in this world
that is solely reserved for us to play, we favor the practice of ethical actions because we
believe it separates us from the rest and makes it easier to find our unique place in the grand
scheme of things. Choosing to dismiss the utilization of our conscience and rational thinking
when evaluating our action’s ethical value is a type of behavior no different to that of an
animal or a lifeless object, which leads us farther from the ideal intellectual self our society
has long strived to be. We are animals, if we simply follow our instincts in deciding which
action to take especially in grave situations, for if we are not to use a certain part of our being
such as our conscience and capable reasoning, it deteriorates and we eventually lose it. One
can argue that people can use their conscience and reasoning but choose to not act upon it,
however, our inner character requires a physical manifestation in the form of our actions as
an indicator that we actually utilize our gifts. Therefore, the attainment of the former holds no
relevance if the latter is not realized, bringing us back to the fact that the existence of our
conscience and the pursuit of conducting ethically right actions go hand in hand and are both
necessary to further advance our intellectually unique self. In addition, the inability to
separate ourselves from other existing species upon not making use of our given conscience
and performing unethical actions can inspire disharmony among the members of the society
and hinder progression towards attaining the life-long goal of finding our direction and
purpose. If we are to hope that our society moves forward with evolving to a society of
intellectual beings befitting of their own niche in this world, we are required to do our part in
honing our conscience by identifying and conducting ethically right actions. Doing so can
inspire others to do the same, thus promoting an aware sense of ethical practice within the
society which in its own right already distinguishes us from other animals enough to place us
in a personal niche of great importance and meaning.
Committing ethically right actions is a means to continuously find meaning in life.
Humans have continuously progressed in this world as individuals interested in finding an
ordered pattern in this arbitrary world in hopes of putting the pieces together and
understanding the true meaning of life. Life, as we know it, is inherently meaningless and is
only deemed to mean something when we give it meaning ourselves. Since everything
ultimately means nothing, we are given the opportunity to start with a blank canvas and
decide what actually means everything. Our ancestors took a hold of this fact and decided to
associate life with the pleasures that gives one happiness ranging from the simplest of things
to the most grandiose schemes. This, however, is not the only determining factor in finding
the meaning of life since our society built a standard moral compass that applauds pleasures
attained from ethically correct actions and shames pleasures from unethical and immoral
actions. Growing up in this setting, it is to be expected that our primary nature favors
experiencing a balance of all pleasures obtained from ethical actions as a means to attain the
ultimate good that is happiness, which leads us in finding and giving our personalized version
of the meaning of life. By choosing to do as much, we begin to appreciate and focus our
energy on the pleasurable things that we deem to mean everything, allowing us to experience
life for what we make it to be. As we continue to experience and embrace each ethically-
driven pleasure we encounter, we also continue to unveil the meaning we have given life. If
we hope to piece together our own interpretation of the meaning of life through experiencing
all pleasures and examining which means everything and which does not, we are to foster
relations with other beings within this world by committing ethically right actions because a
great area of pleasure is left unexplored if you choose to experience life alone. Choosing to
conduct ethically right actions positively impacts one’s self and the beings that surround them
in such a way that they are now connected by the same form of life by abiding to what
society has deemed to be the standard. With these connections amongst beings within the
same realm, one is able to discover and cover various pleasures of life that would have been
unknown had the individual decided that they are to trek the journey without interacting and
making a meaningful interaction with any other being. The collective pleasurable experiences
that we gained and deemed to be a valuable asset in achieving happiness in this life can then
be synthesized together to form our personal meaning of life, because as intellectual beings,
we have long established that a life is meaningful and well-lived if we attain the ultimate
good which is happiness. Experiencing happiness through different forms of pleasure under
the scrutiny of our ethical conscience and rational thinking that avoids unhappiness from
guilt, we are able to synthesize a personalized variation of our society’s thoughts on the
meaning of life that makes life feel all the more meaningful to each and every one of us.