Two Kinds Of Morality Supply Two Kinds Of Understanding
Morality is the essence of understanding and thus life, but there are two kinds of morality, selfish and unselfish, and these obtain two different understandings:
An Unselfish Understanding Is Sane
An Unselfish understanding worships "Us", which is society and its traditions so supplying a common and clear understanding of what is right and what is wrong, free from the prejudice of private desires, which is Sanity. This in turn allows:
Rational Thinking: Disciplined to resist the influence of private feelings and so allow the adoption of truth uncorrupted by superstition. Thereby allowing hence the accumulation of Knowledge.
Self-Sacrifice: Recognition of the need to sacrifice self for the benefit of others, two qualities that must obtain the notions of:
Duty: what a citizen should (sanity) and should not do (insanity), regardless of private feelings so bestowing honourable purpose and sensible identity on all citizens thereby defining the limits to freedom needed to allow social order.
Justice: the belief that the dutiful be rewarded while the undutiful be punished.
A Sense Of Immortality: Implicit in our personal acceptance of a social code is the notion that we are of less importance than the community; this means that we consider our personal well-being inferior to the needs of the society. This allows us to face the prospect of death with some equanimity because even though we know each one of us must eventually die, the most important thing, the community, survives.
A Selfish Understanding Is Insane
A selfish understanding worships only "Me", which makes it a slave of its feelings where right is what private feelings desire and wrong is what private feelings dislike. As feelings change with mood and circumstances, so must judgement, which can never be predictable nor rational, which is insanity. Hence:
Insanity: is the inability to recognize right from wrong independently of private feelings, which obtains:
Irrational Thinking: As private feelings rule reason, which varies with mood and convenience, so preventing clear thinking and allowing the adoption of superstition as truth.
Self-Seeking: The pursuit of private, at the expense of public, welfare, two qualities that must corrupt the notions of:
Duty as it becomes doing what private fears and fancies demand, thereby licensing all behaviour and ignoring tradition.
Justice being what private superstition demands.
Knowledge which becomes the accumulation of Superstition
A Sense Of Impending Doom: Implicit in selfishness is the realisation that the most valuable thing, self, is doomed to die. This means the selfish are haunted by notions of inevitable universal catastrophe that destroys everything.
The Sanity Test
As the insane have no way of judging right from wrong except by their feelings, a simple test of sanity is the question:
How do you recognise right from wrong independently of your feelings?
Unless the truthful answer is tradition, which is the teachings of the church, then insanity is demonstrated.
Conclusion Sanity gives a clear meaning to life and wins wealth through knowledge, but it forces its devotees into a constant struggle to control their emotions as they suppress appetites that conflict with tradition. Whereas Insanity imposes only the restraints of convenience on behaviour, otherwise licensing every animal urge, but it cannot supply any long-term meaning to life and incurs poverty through delusion.