The beginnings of something that’s feeling neglected after a few years in a cold dark file…

Chapter 1

Iris was dead to the world, asleep next to me. I shivered; it was cold in the back of the car. We’d been driving for six hours, and we still didn’t seem to be much closer – I hated driving at night but I was always outvoted. It was fine for my Mum and sister, they didn’t care, but there was no way I could ignore those trees leaning in so hungrily from the verges. I checked my watch - 2.30am. Great. Five more hours.

“Dad,” I whispered. “Dad, can you put the radio on? I can’t sleep.” He did so wordlessly, not even looking as he fumbled with the tuning knob. A screech of white noise assaulted my ears.
“Funny…,” Dad muttered. “Must be out of signal…”
I groaned. Just my luck…

Reaching to switch to silence, his arm jolted suddenly. “Ow!” he cursed, rubbing his hand on his jeans.
“Dad? What happened?”
“Just the damn radio…something must be broken, it shocked me.”
Sure enough, when I peered at the front, I could see a small curl of smoke lit by the dashboard, winding silently towards the ceiling. I bit my lip.
“Do you think we should stop?”
Dad glanced at mum and Iris and nodded – fortunately they hadn’t been woken and were still soundly oblivious.

                We drove in concerned silence for a few minutes, looking for a lay-by, eventually pulling in beside a deep ditch. You could smell the smoke now, acrid and chemical. Dad switched on the overhead lights and began to detach the radio, using the screwdriver from the glove compartment. To my right, cars laboured through the night on the wrong side of the road. My mind echoed as I watched and wondered about their stories. Who were they? Where were they going? Did they notice the insignificant Ford by the ditch, its number plate the only indication that it was an outsider? I was lapsing into thought when the present reminded me it was there with a rush.

“What the…?” the radio was apart in my dad’s hands. Looking closer, I saw the reason for his exclamation.
“It’s melted…completely melted. How on earth…?” His eyebrows drew together in puzzlement and caution.
His concern was justified – before me was a soup of green circuit board and battery acid glinting like an oil spill. How it could have happened I couldn’t fathom – the stereo was relatively new, only a few months old, so what could have made it break so suddenly?
“I guess that explains the static,” I offered.
“I just don’t see why it would do that though…what could have happened to make it melt?” He poked the sludge with the end of the screwdriver and sighed. “We’ll have to dump it; it could be dangerous to keep it in the car. And we’d better open the windows too.”

I wasn’t happy with this prospect, as I was already shivering, but I did as I was told – I’m the obedient, considerate sister. If Iris were awake there would have been a tantrum.

Morality

What are morals? Morals are a set of rules that are passed through the generations like smoke posing as concrete. How many times have we heard activists protesting against the immorality of an action? How many times have we agreed with them? We are all perfectly capable of justifying our opinions, boiling them down to a set of basic principles which are socially accepted as constants, but what happens when  try to follow the trail to the end? Each moral can be condensed into one simple concept – the benefit of the individual. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ - the sixth commandment; this is a perfect example – an individual who persuades others to invest in this moral is one who will benefit from survival. The widely accepted ethic that one should honour ones elders can be traced to the reliance of a child on a parent and the rudimentary animal fact that an unprotected infant cannot stay alive. World peace is also not as unselfish as it is renowned to be, as one who encourages peace wishes, at their most selfish level, for safety.

When a youth commits a crime, they are rarely held wholly responsible. Instead it is the parents of the child who are viewed as those at fault, as they have failed to instil a proper sense of morality and respect for the law in their offspring. However, one must then ask the following question; why does the maturity of the adult lead to guilt? Surely they too have learnt morality from their own parents, as have their parents and ancestors before them? In that case, is there such thing as blame? We may place blame on the choices made by an adult, but essentially it is the upbringing and influence of society which determines the outcome of such decisions. Is society to blame? No, society cannot be blamed, as fundamentally this would involve blaming the pillars of society – morals – who rapidly dissipate into dust when scrutinised.

Morality is circular and highly contradictory. Altruism is praised and encouraged, yet those who act with altruistic intent do it either for the warm feeling of honour and decency or because they believe that they should – so the act, in essence is not altruistic. It is committed in order to achieve these good feelings, or the good feelings resulting from society’s approval. This tarnishes the term ‘unselfish’ at its very deepest as the only truly unselfish act would be selfish, or else grudging and therefore not in following with the moral in any case. Humanity is selfish; each individual lives to please only themselves and morals are unfounded rules which aid this process.

I’m assuming tumblr is as anonymous as I make it? Hopefully that’s the case because I’m going to be posting whatever I feel like…

I sound like my Gran, stumbling over technology here!