Welcome to The Moral CV

Most college students just getting out of school are worried about their professional CV (curriculum vitae). I’m worried about my moral CV (character & values). Everyday we are flooded by so many stories of discrimination, abuse, violence, greed, fraud, and hysteria that we have become numb to our own beliefs. We are indoctrinated by so many camps of politics, economics, law, religion, and culture that we can no longer find our way home. I believe that all people in their twenties should write a personal manifesto - the story of who they are (character) and what they believe (values) - before entering the real world and making an impact. Perhaps if we do this, we’ll be more of ourselves. And I think that will make the world a better place.

This idea developed out of conversations I had with my best friend Dylan while we were backpacking through Europe in 2014. We realized that even through our education at prestigious universities like Stanford and UCLA, we simply did not receive much of a moral education at all. In fact, much to our dismay, we found that most of our peers were surprisingly amoral in regards to important decisions like their career, their relationships, their behaviors, and their beliefs and values. I believe it is incredibly dangerous for our most valued schools to be sending students off to the real world, where they will bear huge responsibilities to society, without a moral compass. I don't mean to say that universities should dictate what that moral compass is; rather, they should guide students through the learning necessary to truly internalize a personal understanding of morality, so that they feel confident in creating their own.

That is exactly what I would like to do with this forum. I have prepared a set of topics to help guide us along major areas of thought, in which we will pose questions week by week and initiate thoughtful discussions, as well as welcome personal statements of ideas or opinions for debate or criticism. I would roughly like to follow the sequence below by month, but we are free to deviate and jump around as appropriate.


MORALITY

PART ONE: PHILOSOPHY
January: Reason vs. Faith
    Reason
         Logical thinking
         Debate etiquette
         Facts and values
    Faith
         Religion
         Spirituality
February: Existentialism
    The meaning of life
    Free will
    Loss and death, mortality
    Are we alone?
March: Morality vs. Ethics
    Morality
         Good vs. Evil
         Right vs. Wrong
         Compassion
         Truths and lies
    Ethics
         Society
         Human rights
         Human nature

PART TWO: HUMAN BEHAVIOR
April: Explanations
    Psychology
    Evolution
    Nature vs. nurture (false dichotomy)
May: The Self
    Consciousness
         Mental health
         Drugs
         Creativity
         Learning
    Identity
         Image
         Character
         Values
    Life Purpose
         Career
         Ambition
         Discovery, getting out of your bubble
June: Relationships
    Friendship and companionship
    Love
    Sexuality
    Marriage (sexuality irrelevant)
    Parenting/family values

ETHICS

PART THREE: INSTITUTIONS
July: Politics
    Government
         Types of government
    War and Peace
    Law
August: Economics
    Types of economic systems
    Inequality
    Greed
    Environmentalism
         Tragedy of the commons
    Science and Technology
September: Society
    Education
    Health
    Privacy
         Surveillance
    Tolerance/intolerance
    Gender equality
    Race and Ethnicity
    Sexual orientation

PART FOUR: CULTURE
October: Consumerism
    Media and Storytelling
    First world problems
         Image
         Money and wealth
         Success
    Tragedies
         Mass shootings
         Disasters
         Terrorism
         Mental health
    Art
         Music
         Film
         Literature
         Contemporary art/bullshit
    Health
         Alcohol/drugs
         Food
November: Youth culture
    College culture
    Greek
    Digital society, internet
December: Moral CVs published


If you would like to participate, just let me know and I'll get you set up.

Of course, this forum will be a place for respectful dialogue. I will exercise all my powers as a moderator to make sure that participants feel safe and welcome no matter what their views are, so long as discussion is rational and based on mutual respect. Because of the sensitive nature of many of these topics, I highly recommend that all participants remain anonymous through an online alias through the discussions, so that the debates themselves do not become personal. I also want to emphasize the importance of logical reasoning and professional rhetoric. If anything, participation in this forum will help you exercise your ability to form cohesive and logical arguments, and this is absolutely essential to all of us having meaningful dialogue. I recommend that all responses be carefully drafted in another word editor, checked for errors, even peer reviewed before being posted on the site. I may exercise my powers as moderator at times to enforce the level of quality of the debates.

To participate, simply follow the discussion topics as they are created and contribute thoughtfully wherever you desire. You may also suggest topics to the administrator or post your own threads within each section. You are encouraged to link to references and cite sources wherever you can. Debates will go on for as long as they need to, and can always be revisited. There are no right answers in morality (though even this we will debate).

In conclusion, the goal of this year-long experiment is ultimately to help each other become more thoughtful and moral leaders in society. Hopefully this culminates in each participant publishing his or her Moral C, essentially a formal personal manifesto on all the topics discussed and any other deemed important. I believe this is an exercise that should be performed by all young people, so what we learn in this year could be replicated in the future at scale through word of mouth or through more institutional means. No matter what, this forum will be driven by a shared belief that morality matters in our society, and that it matters now more than ever.

Thanks,
Derek