If you're new to my channel, you may have noticed that I tend to be a moralistic person. But do you want to know the reason why? Well, if you've watched the Jimmy Kimmel show, one of the segments is called Mean Tweets. These are targeted at celebrities, and they are pretty funny to read. However, we're getting a repeat of this segment, except there's no humor here; they're just... mean and that's it. But before we get to what's wrong with today's morality, here's a rundown of the morals I covered.

#1 Telling The Truth: It's a noble endeavor to be truthful, but don't expect it to set you free (at least in the short term). The tricky part is getting people to believe you, especially if they're close-minded and biased. The truth about the truth is that seeing things for what they truly are will help you make better decisions in your life; only then would be free.

#2 Success: Being successful isn't always based on skills. Not by themselves. What most of it is based on is luck. More than that, success isn't always the best teacher. While failure can be scary and frustrating to think about, it can prove that what you're doing is wrong, especially if it's all but inevitable.

#3 Health: There may be no more topic riddled with misinformation than the health industry. And that's because health is something we often take for granted. We often think it's about the food we eat, but it's more complicated than that. There are other factors to consider as well, such as lifestyle choices and thought processes. It doesn't help that many dieticians, both mainstream and alternative, are short-sighted and hard to take seriously, even with the best of intentions.

#4 Pandering: It seems like today's culture seem to be focused on certain groups while excluding all else. In fact, there seems to be a full-on resentment on any and all groups that aren't them. This is pandering, or at least what many think pandering is. Its true nature lies in nuance and what kind of message you wish to tell in your story. The best-known stories speak to many cultures and many people, regardless of origin. Meanwhile, stories that pander make a mockery of everyone, including the very people your aiming for.

#5 Bullying: We're under the impression that abusive people just resort to violence, but there are a lot of other ways they do it. In fact, abuse of any kind is the simultaneous enacting and withholding of power. But what's even more harmful is that we have told many solutions to the problem, but we leave out the most important part; that part being that, no matter what your method is, you must always stand your ground. Be the person who draws lines. Only then will you gain resilience.

#6 Political Power: On a similar note, too many people that tyranny of any kind is based on narcissism. Whether it be fascism, communism, or whatever "ism" you could think of. As for the people that cast their votes, they use whatever political pundits to draw attention to themselves. So when you put it that way, they stop sounding like puppets and more like they're just sycophantic. That's why when their political candidate loses or someone wants to talk about something else, they fly off the handle because they're sore losers.

#7 Love: It's true what they say, love makes people stupid. A lot of people still believe that love is all about whom would be the most likely candidate to create a family with. The problem is that there a lot, and I mean a lot of standbys, some of which don't really work in a romantic relationship. Things like looks, liking the same things, being cut from the same cloth. The thing is love begins and ends with trust, which is the most fundamental factor of any relationship. If you can't develop trust, there's no love. Simple as that.

#8 Economics: A lot of people believe that money makes the world go round, but they still don't understand why they're so miserable with their lot of life. Economics are based on more than just financial wealth. You still need to factor in other things like the job market, housing, the buying and selling of goods, etc. Furthermore, material gain in and of itself doesn't make you unfair and greedy. Those factors are more deeply rooted in apathy towards the sources from where you get them from.

#9 History: Historical events have been one-sided and skewed in recent years. The biggest reason is that scholars, teachers, newscasters and politicians have reshaped the narratives to fit their narcissistic bias. The greatest people of the past only have their positive or negative qualities talked about in their circles. History has many, many angles, yet we only choose the one that helps the most with image. It's literally favoritism, which can lead to terrible outcomes had they been truth in them.

#10 Follow Your Dreams: As satisfying as it is to achieve goals, you have to be realistic with them. You can't expect to be great at everything. Worse still, such naiveté has resulted in the people who wished them becoming miserable and full of regrets. However, this can be averted if they understood their strong and weak points and balanced them out a bit more. Add to that, short-term goals are not permanent fixes. Thinking in the long run may require sacrifices, some of which you may be unprepared for.

So what's wrong with morality? I'm by no means a nihlist or secular, but, one of the main issues with morality and it's a recurring theme in my journals, is that there is no reciprocation. I didn't touch on things like kindness or gratitude or beauty is because they need to go both ways regardless. I wanted to touch on morals where they're directed on an individual basis and where the morals are more about making you a better contributor to society rather than make you a better person and defender of your morality. This is, for all intents and purposes, what morality is truly about, to help people make better choices and better lives. It also doesn't help that different cultures have their own morals and interpretations, which can be good for some people, but not others, especially if they have hostile interpretations.

Now, there is one moral that I think doesn't have any weak points whatsoever, and may in fact, be the most important moral that I think everyone should learn. And it's called... drumroll please... self-control. Now, there seems to be some literal-mindedness behind this one as well; some people believe that it's about something like how much food you consume or having a short fuse and a deep desire to commit violence. Well, that's partially what it means, but there's a lot more to it than that.

Do you want to know what the biggest collective fear that most people have? It's not spiders, snakes, clowns, or dolls. In fact, it has nothing to do with anything material. The worst fear that most people fear above all things is the truth about themselves. Do you ever wonder why alcoholics hide their booze in places where anyone would be least likely to look? Or why serial killers hide their victims' bodies in a crawlspace? Or why porn addicts try in vain to hide the fact that they have aroused genitals? It's because that have sworn their flawed selves to secrecy. Secrets are something else that has been treated as though it's a common good. And it is, but to an extent, a good thing to learn. It's just that far too often, we keep the wrong things secret. As a result, it leaves a desire to pursue short-term goals for their own sake, and make face value assumptions about every facet of life, even those you're very familiar with. This, in turn, leads to things like depression, anxiety, wrath, or revenge. In extreme cases, it could potentially lead to a life of crime or even suicidal ideations.

So where does self-control come into the picture? Well, look no further than the classic phrase "The first step is admitting you have a problem." Potential is a funny thing; we only see one side of result before making creating an actual conclusion. Worse, though, we try to prove our premature judgments correct, be they positive or negative. With society, it's the same exact thing. We preemptively tell ourselves that our positive aspects are the only thing that matters, and that our negative aspects should be ignored. On the other side of the coin, when someone is given negative feedback for any reason, they try to fudge facts in hopes that their bias will be the correct one. Sadly, too much attention to one aspect while being negligent of the other, is a terrible idea. This is the reason why we need to learn self-control, because our inner demons want us to think of yourself, not for yourself.

Perhaps the worst part about it all is that we think about the end goal more than we do the goal itself. By misplacing our focus, we often wind up skipping some crucial parts necessary to achieve the goal the way want it to. In turn, we achieve little to no satisfaction. Think about what happens when a student tries to cheat on a test, or when an athlete takes steroids. Are they really thinking of the test they’re taking or the sport they’re playing? Probably not. The only thing on their mind is scoring some big points by any means necessary. This is perhaps the biggest problem with society; they only think of the end goal, and they’ll only accept you if you meet that end goal. Sometimes there’s only way to achieve your goals or solve your problems is not over or under, but straight through. Again, this is the reason why we need to learn self-control, because it can clear and redirect focus to where it should be.

The thing about self-control is that sometimes, you function better when there is a middle ground. No matter which way the see-saw of life tilts, you won’t be at your best unless you stand in the area where the fulcrum is. Not only does the fulcrum keep it anchored to the ground, but it’s also the part of the seesaw that sees the least amount of change when it moves. Standing here also keeps your opinions and decision-making in check as well. It’s not a question as to whether or not the see-saw is straight and level, but more a question of whether or not you’re able to remain stable while it moves.

And what about self-respect and humility? Well, that also plays into the self-control aspect as well. Every so often, I come across someone who always posts something about how sucky their life is, or how much they want to exercise their deep-seated hatred of anyone who isn’t them. While they may sound like opposites, what they really are is two sides of the same coin. Either way, these people are thinking of themselves. And when you think of yourself, be it in a positive or negative way, you put yourself at a disadvantage. Sometimes, you can be your very own distraction, and as mentioned, image makes you weak, and oftentimes, dangerous. As you can imagine, most flamewars don’t start because of something that’s really of concern. Most of the time, these debates are over something rather trivial and unimportant, like whether or not you’d like to be engaged to a fictional character. Everyone who joins in the argument is just as delusional and self-absorbed as the person who merely started it. Sometimes, the only way to win an argument and be saner about it is to not partake in it. But maybe you’ll be able to win more people over if you controlled whatever impulses you have, and try not to butter people up for attention. Being humble and mindful of what your actions and feelings are can get you further than just mistaking constructive criticism for insults.

So that’s the conclusion of this series. Again, it’s always a pity when morality goes against what’s supposed to be improvement in one’s life and make them more like themselves. That’s the rub when you live in general society; depending on who’s in charge, they think of you as a teammate or a mirror. And sometimes, they may abandon you when they no longer think of you as important. Sometimes the only person you can trust to make the right decision is yourself. And if you do learn to control your inner demons before they start to control you, it might become that much clearer. But first, you may need to understand what your inner demons actually are. It may the bravest, noblest, most moralistic thing you could ever do.