Our moral compass can lose its bearing

Consider the anguish of parents of young people like Elliot Rodger, the Santa Barbara mass killer, asks Kate Stewart.

Corruption, I touched on it last week, albeit lightly, in reference to the match-fixing allegations that have been pitched against some New Zealand cricketers.

Typically we might associate the word with politics and big business dealings and just as typically, greed is the motivating factor.

It's said that everyone has their price and I wonder just how true that is. When push really comes to shove, when everything in life isn't going our way, what are we really capable of?

Traditional, if that's the right word, corruption usually involves financial bribery but what of moral corruption ... just what are we prepared to turn a blind eye to? Is it possible that we are capable of crossing that line, the one we promised ourselves we would never cross?

The moral compass is a complex beast and a hugely personal one too. What one may deem as unthinkable will be the norm for someone else and then there is the further complication of a catch 22. What direction do you take then? It's a real minefield. One wrong move and the whole thing explodes in your face. You could just stand still - but it's hard to sleep (at night) standing up.

I suppose a great example would be that of a parent, caught between a rock and a hard place. Imagine being a parent of a child who has broken the law by committing a serious crime against another human being or knowing that your child has the will and capability to cause harm to others. What do you do?

This child is your flesh and blood, all your instincts are screaming at you to shield and protect your child from harm. Surely people will understand that your loyalty must be to family, won't they?

The alternative is to do what society and the law perceive to be "the right thing". Right for some maybe, but not your child. Or maybe this hard life lesson of "betrayal" is in some warped way the right thing for the child as well.

A life lesson in consequences that will ultimately serve them well and hopefully send them on an alternative life-path, albeit via prison and/or alienating yourself from your child and perhaps other family who don't share your morals. Do unto others, the greater good and all that.

For me this would be a parent's worst nightmare. A real moral dilemma. I can make a valid argument for both courses of direction. In my mind I think I know what "the right thing" for me is, but that brings about a whole new dilemma. Should I be doing what's right for me or what's right for the child? Or for that matter, what's right by everyone else.

What once was clear cut and in my mind's eye black and white, is now 50 shades of grey and then some.

It's one of those things, I guess, that until you are actually faced with it, you really can't say. Is there a lesser of two evils or are you basically just screwed either way?

Even when you do finally choose you have to look at what motivated you to make that choice, maybe the actual motivation itself is the best moral compass and reveals more about us than we think. Are our actions selfless or selfish?

It's a tough one, and one of just many moral dilemmas that face us in society and I'd be interested in knowing what you would do in a similar situation. Maybe it's cut and dried and an absolute no-brainer for some. What would you do?

Personally, I think the moral corruption of society is becoming the new and seemingly weaponless crimewave to wash over the world. A dilemma, that if we are not careful, will see thousands being drowned in an ocean of dodgy decision making. The sad irony is that some will stay afloat by pushing others under.

Again I ask, how far would you go and what would you do ... to stay alive? Let me know, investik8@gmail.com.

Kate Stewart is an unemployed, reluctant mother of three.