WHAT IS RIGHT?

 

WHAT IS RIGHT?

The word ‘right’ in the sense of just, fair, correct, legal, lawful, impartial, valid, etc., is a relative term. The logic of the saying “Nothing is good or bad , but thinking makes it so” can also be applied  to ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. What is right in the eyes of one man, may be wrong in the eyes of another. Moreover, what may be legally right today may become legally wrong tomorrow by any amendment in the law of an orgaisation. So, there can be no changeless view about what is right.

The definition of right also changes from one country to another. Dictatorship may be right in one country but may be wrong in another democratic country. The proverb “ Tenets differ but all is well and wisely put” is universally valid.

Look at this proverb: ”Might is right”. This may be valid in authoritarianism but not in a democracy or a religious setup where morality is the chief basis of rightness’.

Here is another proverb: Two wrongs do not make one right.

To conclude,  a different quote by the English divine August W. Hare (1792-1834) which says “ Right is might, and ever was, and ever shall be so. Holiness, meekness, patience, humility, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, faith, love, ----each is might, and every gift of the spirit is might.”

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G.R.Kanwal

30 April 2024