not playing “moralopoly”

I have never quite accepted the fact that we can change just about everything in life, except our core values, and opinions. Can change job, spouse, country, social status, wealth, but born a liberal, die a liberal. Born impatient, die impatient. But why is it so difficult to change such a core of ours? What are the obstacles?

To me, the best way to address the question is to pause for a moment of our day, to register our current activities or thoughts and try to understand the why of such current action or thought. You might find it useful to repeat the exercise a number of times, until you detect some pattern. Chances are that you are currently judging something as good or bad. In fact, we spend a great part of our life, putting moral labels on events or contacts we encounter in our everyday life. In a way, we play moralopoly, i.e. we draw events/encounters like cards and we almost always label them somehow,  say good, bad, desirable, atrocious, etc. This goes as well for our review of people’s behavior, political opinions, random natural events, that test our patience, comfort. Our consciousness seems to constantly characterize events with a label, so that we have a broader context in which to assess the events. A sort of filing system that rarely misses a beat. In reality, a filter that blocks ideas that don’t conform to our preconceived notions. I guess it keeps us “coherent” and our environment prefers it that way, as opposed to playing a guessing game every time on what we think. Bad script! 

I long to stop playing at moralopoly, I long to no longer accept that I can’t change my core values or biases. The only way to change oneself or to truly listen to someone with empathy and grasp a bit of his/her ideas, is to stop putting our ego’s labels on everything. Stop playing moralopoly, relax a little: a more peaceful approach, less tiring, less stressful.

Much, more better!