There are times morality matters more. A person or a people loses the idea of right and veers into reckless, destructive misbehavior. Right and wrong may be dismissed as preferences or sentimental bullshit when victories are measured in lucre, not love.

                  Though I acted with probity most of my adult years, I didn’t ponder right and wrong, I just knew. How I knew I’m not sure – inherited values mostly, a mollifed version of our stern tribal code. Managing publishing companies, I endeavored to do what seemed right, not because I was a goody-goody, but because I believed bad ethics were bad business. If a local newspaper misleads – we had newspapers then – memories are long. Forfeit your neighbors’ trust and you might as well shut up shop.

                  I was hardly exceptional. Newspaper publishers tended to be scrupulous about their principles. The New York Times hired a Public Editor who scrutinized their newsroom’s choices and published candid verdicts. The separation between newsrooms and business departments was scrupulously maintained. “Without fear or favor” – imagine!

                  Today the news isn’t what happened but what owners decree. Truth’s warped to accommodate agendas. The notion of an independent press is derided as naïve. Unwelcome news must be fake: it’s either your propaganda or mine.

                  The meltdown of public morality endangers a democracy. Democracy is predicated on trust. How can a liar be my ally in the public good? The scamp may be up to something – can’t be too careful. Collaboration is displaced by suspicion. Wearied by the incessant brawling, the public quits paying attention and next thing you know, government has devolved into a lawless grab-fest. Politician becomes synonymous with crook.

                  The dangers posed by Americans’ growing indifference to morality got me thinking about the subject in my luxurious retirement. Living one’s life leaves little time to think. Pondering is wandering, not always toward a desirable goal. Not just commerce, but any occupation discourages free thought, which might lead to dispiriting conclusions.

                  Turns out morality is fun to think about and not always simple. If you don’t depend on a creed with its rigid code, how to determine right and wrong? Which moral conundrums are debatable, which inarguable? How to prove your contentions? How inculcate morality and enforce it? To how strict a standard should one hold oneself? What at day’s end is our purpose on earth? How convey my conclusions in convincing words?

                  This wasn’t an abstract thought exercise. I needed to know – because we needed to – hurtling horrifyingly in the wrong direction. The Nameless One was the nemesis of any conceivable moral system – that was clear enough – but what values might we assert in self-defense? Thoughtful souls have been chewing these questions for millennia – their thoughts help us think – but morality must ever be renewed to fit new circumstances. Aristotle, for some reason, didn’t anticipate AI.

                  My moment made me a moralist – not because I knew the answers, but because I didn’t – we didn’t – and we needed to find our way. You can’t test for goodness as you can for Covid or pregnancy, you’ve got to discover it on your own – try it on – feel it. And having located a rule to live by you’ve got to live it best you can, which may take guts. “He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life,” wrote Emerson.