The Moralization Switch
The starting point for appreciating that there is a distinctive
part of our psychology for morality is seeing how moral
judgments differ from other kind of opinions we have on
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how people ought to behave. Moralization is a psychological
state that can be turned on and off like switch, and when it is
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on, a distinctive mind-set commandeers our thinking. This
is the mind-set that makes us deem actions moral ("killing
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is wrong"), rather than merely disagreeable ("I hate brussels
sprouts"), unfashionable ("bell-bottoms are out") or imprudent
("don"t scratch mosquito bites"). The first hallmark of
moralization is the rules it invokes are felt to be universal.
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Prohibitions of rape and murder, for example, are felt not to
be matters of local custom as to be universally and objectively
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warranted. One can easily say, "I don"t like brussels
sprouts, but I don"t care if you ate them," but no one would
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say, "I don"t like killing, but I don"t care if you murder
someone." The other hallmark is that people feel that those
who commit immoral acts deserve to be punished. Not only
is it allowable to inflict pain to a person who has broken a
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moral rule; it is wrong not to, to "let them get away from
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it." People are thus untroubled in inviting divine retribution
or the power of the state to harm other people they deem it
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immoral. Bertrand Russell wrote, "The infliction of cruelty
with a good conscience is a delight to moralists—that is how
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they invented hell."