Moral engagement requires moral agency–active engagement in resisting pressures and justifications for behaving inhumanely, and proactive efforts to engage in and promote humane behavior. Key contributors to moral agency include humanizing the other, and empathizing with the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of the other.
A noteworthy example of someone who courageously stuck his neck out to protest inhumane behavior is U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning. We recommend that you read all you can about this serviceman and decide which mechanisms fit him or whoever is the WikiLeaks whistle blower who released the video of the helicopter attack on civilians and the Reuters newsmen.
Moral engagement does not come easy. Manning has been imprisoned and allegedly tortured for his whistle blowing activities. On a lesser scale, humanizing members of a group that is reviled by members of your own group can make you unpopular and put you at risk. Empathizing with people who are despised by your peers can be psychologically painful and socially dangerous.
However, there are also high costs to moral disengagement. Wars are increasingly followed by large numbers of suicides and cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in their former participants—a likely reflection of the “moral injury” experienced by those former participants because of what they did to other human beings. (For more information on moral injury in veterans, see the work of Brett Litz.)
Movement from moral disengagement to engagement is possible. Servicemen who went to Vietnam were well-indoctrinated in morally disengaged reasoning. Yet many became morally engaged in the face of the horrendous inhumanity they witnessed and in which they were ordered to participate. The active anti-war movement that spread within the armed forces helped bring that war to an end.
Today, veterans against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are working tirelessly for an end to those wars. Consider what you can do to support them and engage in peace-promoting activities. For example, read and consider adding your name to the Open Letter of Reconciliation and Responsibility to the Iraqi People by Iraq Veterans Against the War.
If you love democracy and appreciate your freedoms, remember the words of Thomas Jefferson: “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Remember also how many times yesterday’s “enemies” have become today’s allies. Reconciliation is always possible.
Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology