I'm Completely Out of Touch

If I recall from my high school psychology class, there's a stage of early childhood intellectual development in which an individual is not yet capable of differentiating one's own self from others. Could their inability to see that different ways of developing moral or ethical standards is a manifestation of being stalled in this earlier period of mental development?

I waffle between thinking that the people you speak of have 1) lived amid such homogeneity as not possess a broad enough perspective to comprehend the possibility of being functional and unlike them and 2) that these poor folks have chosen their path of disbelief and judgement because of some trauma (in a very broad sense) they've experienced.

And yet, I also believe that there are reasons and there are excuses, but that sometimes the reason for something does not excuse it.

Ironically, inside the conservative, Bush-sign-displaying housing development in which I live (ca. 1hr outside Philly), the conservatives appear to believe that if you've got the morals that come from being christian (ptui), it's okay to run stopsigns and flagrantly disobey our Development's bylaws, regardless of how they impose upon others or of how these actions put their own children in danger on a daily basis.

This leads me to believe that I wouldn't have to obey the law if I were christian (ptui).

Halleluiah!