Acting on Principle

I had these two friends in college… I had other friends, but the three of us spent a lot of time together. We’ll call these two friends Lee and Karl. Lee got irritated at unusual things sometimes. Someone (usually me) would move his chair or leave something laying around, and it really got under his skin. So sometimes I would ask Lee what the big deal was, why these things bothered him so much, and he would say, “It’s the principle of the thing.”

One day, Karl pulled me aside and he said, “it drives me crazy when Lee says ‘it’s the principle of the thing.’” Honestly, at the time, I didn’t understand why. Principles are a good thing, so why shouldn’t Lee act on principles, but then I started wondering what principles Lee was acting on. What principle is it that applies to leaving a chair where you found it? Maybe there is a principle that relates to respecting property, but moving a chair doesn’t necessarily imply disrespecting property.

It made me start wondering whether my “principles” could truly be called principles. For example, I had my own issues with Lee. He tended to drown other people’s opinions out with his own. He was so clear about his preferences that some of our friends didn’t have a chance to voice their preferences. This started bugging me, so I began opposing Lee in all  kinds of things. I would argue with him not because I really disagreed with him, but because I was tired of him constantly getting his way. I decided to present the opinions of the silent majority who must have disagreed with him. Looking back, I can see that I got into those arguments because I was irritated by Lee. At the time, I would have told you that loud people shouldn’t always get their way. Somebody should stick up for the quiet people, but honestly what kind of a principle is that?

There’s something wrong with this picture. Lee and I both tried to veil our ignoble behavior behind a pleasant façade of “principles.” The issue here isn’t genuine principles. The issue is personal preferences masquerading as universal principles. Most (or maybe even all) bad behavior is justified somehow. I am an expert at rationalizing anything questionable that I do and papering over selfishness with flimsy morality. When the man who wanted to live forever asked Jesus what to do, Jesus told him to love. People seem to be better at recognizing the absence of love than the presence of bad moral reasoning. Which is easier, to only do what you can justify using ethical principles, or to devote your feelings, thoughts, being, and actions exclusively to love?