Relatively absolute

I believe that I possess a mixture of relativism and moral absolutism in my pattern of logic. I believe that everyone has a reason to think what they wish and that by understanding that reason, we can more easily gauge and temper our own thoughts and ideas. I don't tend to judge any standpoint as absolutely incorrect or correct. There are a few exceptions, bigotry and jingoism for example. I see bigotry as wrong because no one deserves to be judged merely by the color of their skin, their religious background, their cultural heritage or anything about their physical appearance. I judge people on their own merit. As for my other example, jingoism, it relates to a person holding their own ideas above all others. It is a chauvinistic practice that forces other ideas and concepts away.

Let's take a hypothetical situation into consideration. A man named Rob was once working at K-Mart in Warner robins. He enjoyed his job immensely and worked there for many years. It wasn't terribly good money, but it was the only thing that he could get having been forced to drop out of high school at a young age to take care of his dying mother. Let's say one day that the legislation finally passes and good old Robins finally closes down. Our friend Rob shrugs this off, seeing himself as one of the lucky ones in the area that isn't employed on base. A few weeks go by and Rob's boss tells him that the store is closing. K-mart had barely been able to stay open since Wal-Mart moved a second store into town, and now with the base gone there is no money coming in and the store must shut down. Rob is crushed. He clocks out for the last time and hangs up his red vest on the copper hook in the locker that once had his name on it. He leaves the store for the final time as the "Closed" sign is taped into the window.

Rob rides his bike home to the apartment he lives in with his sick mother. He enters the house to find his mother has taken a terrible turn for the worse. Rob takes his mother to the doctor who tells him that she needs a certain type of expensive medication, but she has no health insurance. Rob takes his mother home and stays up late into the night, sitting at the kitchen table staring down into a glass of bourbon. He never had the money for anything beyond rent and food. There was no way he could get a loan, having had terrible credit problems in the past. There were absolutely no jobs within an hour's drive, the base's closing having forced away most businesses and all open positions having been filled by people desperate for income having lost their civil servant positions. Someone with retail experience and no high school diploma couldn't possibly hope to compete in a job market that competitive. Rob decided to ask for help.

Rob went by the local churches, looking for help. Apparently everyone else in the local area beat him there. Canned goods had been given away, the local food drives had run dry. Rob had no family to help him, having been on of the last surviving in his line. His friends were nearly as bad off as him. Rob had no where to turn and his mother was approaching death. He decided to steal the medication. He went to the store with an old Halloween mask and a fake gun. He drove into Walgreen's and held up the cashier. He stole the medication that would save his mother's life. That was the only thing that he took. He immediately left. Rob had been lucky that day. The cashier tripped a silent alarm but the police were far too busy with a riot that had started at the Centreville mall. Rob saved his mother's life.

My views on this are that stealing is wrong. The absolutism side tells me that all stealing in wrong, but my predominant relativism side tells me that there was a just reason for this. Rob tried everything he could think of in this terrible situation and came up empty. He resorted to stealing in order to save his mother's life. One could argue that he may have traumatized the cashier. One may also argue that stealing from such a large company does not really hurt anyone. These are points of minor consideration when faced with the bigger picture. He saved his mother's life by committing a regularly heinous act. I judge actions by their cause, effect and intent. I judge by popular standards and my own. I attempt to look at things from several perspectives.