Evils, Vices, and Bad Habits

 Some things in life are just wrong. Like harming others without reason. In this section, I hope to talk just about that--things that I feel are just wrong, whether they be bad habits, malformed judgements, or traits or actions that arise from misconceptions.

I realize that morality is a vast topic, and there are realms of ideas to explore and discuss, such as the trolley problem, to religion, to societal and socioeconomic matters, I’ll stick to a few examples that I’ve experienced firsthand, and can learn from.

The first of such vices is addictions. Whether it be an addiction to gambling, drugs, video games or high-reward temptations, I’ve come to experience the harmful impact of them firsthand. One recent example of such is an addiction to bullet chess. Now, bullet chess is a high-reward game. It mentally feels very different to me than a rapid or blitz game. Even recently, I had days where I would play up to 60 1+0 bullet games. Because of it’s fast-paced, rewarding, and involving nature, I suppose I fell into the trap of playing it too often.

The first question I’d like to discuss is that of--why is it a vice to play too much chess? Or, for that matter, watching too much YouTube, playing a video game for too long, or habitually procrastinating on a task by being caught up in one form of entertainment.

The answer I’ve come up with so far is that it’s a virtue to resist immediate gratification and suffer for the short term, in order to feel happy in the long term. Conversely, it’s a sin to succumb to immediate temptation, such as lust, and to make decisions that cause long-term sadness or regret.

(Short diversion to discuss the idea of heaven and hell, Jesus and Satan, virtue and sin. I feel that these are concepts that are core to humanity itself, seeing the extent to which they are brought up across all religious as far as I know, and involve a central conflict between the good side of us that seeks out eternal goodness fighting an evil side of us that pulls us into the depths of hell. I feel that the suffering that succeeds a wrongdoing is much greater in magnitude and a much more unglorious type of suffering than that which precedes happiness, which is the reason that we value one decision over the other--it is a difficult decision that puts us through pain, but also one that enables us to become better people, have a lighter conscience, and have one less sin to worry about on our deathbed.)

After playing too much chess, I feel a sense of guilt. But it is not merely the feeling of guilt that makes me unhappy to have made the decision, but also the deep sense of culpability and unfaithfulness to my sense of duty that caused me to stray from the path of moral rectitude, hard work, and discipline that I regard as the sources of my motivation and the substance of the goals I set for myself. I have a very similar feeling after a day spent doing very little work or putting off my day’s activities.

The last topic I wish to discuss is the attitude of justifying what we know to be deeply wrong, such as indulging in bad habits. While religious texts provide a dictum of moral absolutism that should dictate our path and guide our decisions, I feel that these principles have been generally rejected by today’s society, as evidenced by the growing population of atheists. While I feel that they are not wrong to question teachings rather than to follow them blindly, I also perceive that it is indicative of a deeper mistrust in the purity and correctness of their teachings.

I’ve had one experience justifying a bad habit which I now regard as a vice. Having heard arguments both ways, and weighing in my personal experience, I made a conscious effort to limit indulging in the bad habit. The decision to do so was an instinctive one, one that I feel came from my consciousness. Though it is a bit early to tell the impact it would have upon my mind, clarity of consciousness, and ability to work towards my goals, one thing that I can say is that I’ve observed a decline in the ocurrence of the incidence of guilt that often followed my frequent, habitual, and uncontrolled indulgence in the action.