Wrong

Responding to Weekly Prompts – Weekend Challenge

Weekly Prompts – Weekend Challenge – Wrong

Anyone who knows me knows that I am big on the meaning of words and their relationship to one another. Wrong is an interesting word. If you check out the dictionary definition, you will see that most of the definitions are saying that wrong is something that is not something else. Something that is not moral, not just, not successful, not accurate. The list goes on.

I think that “wrong” in many cases is actually a subjective term. Now, if you say 2+2 = 7, that is wrong. It is not a factual statement at all. In any given non-arithmetic situation, you could say, “That person was wrong for doing what they did.” Were they? Perhaps. But the idea of wrongness invokes and necessitates a certain amount of emotion, and therefore, subjectivity.

Something can feel wrong but not be wrong. And, at the same time, something can be wrong and not feel wrong. Allow me to explain. A child who deals with abuse at home will perhaps grow up to be a person who does not stand up for themselves. Doing so feels wrong to them because it is not familiar, but most people will agree that standing up for yourself is right, and it is important. On the flip side, you squish a mosquito or a spider. It doesn’t feel wrong because of the consensus that these creatures are pests, but in a way, it is wrong because you are ending a life.

And that’s the thing, isn’t it? In so many cases, the idea of “wrong” has to do with the societal consensus, with the overall judgements of the culture and the era. Where is it that we can find objective evaluations of what wrong is? I don’t know that we can. I don’t believe that life or the universe or perhaps even god in whatever form, is concerned with right vs wrong. It is concerned with balance. In any system, micro or macro, the net-net of any transaction or interaction is zero – you see this in finance, in physics, in math, in many personal relationships. The system is attempting to maintain homeostasis, to balance both sides of the equation for a net gain of zero so that things continue the way that they were designed to.

“Wrong” is largely a subjective judgement placed on things in a broad way to keep society in line. Perhaps we are on the right track with those judgements, but we have no way of knowing for sure because of our physiological and mental limitations.