The Truth of Right and Wrong

There’s a hotel in warm southern, quiet town called Encinal, which is in Southern Texas. The town has many good shops and gardens, but is most famously known for its hotel. The hotel is near a long highway connected to many other roads leading to Mexico. Travelers from faraway areas pass by frequently through the hotel to rest and continue toward their destination. Many of the employees who have worked there have seen people from many different backgrounds. One day a tall, unfamiliar looking man walks into the hotel. The woman at the front counter has a puzzled look on her face. She looks at the man carefully to see if she can determine where he may be from. The man has silver hair and a blue eye. His other eye is missing and has a large scar over it. His arms have bandages around them. He wears a furry, heavy coat, which indicates that he may be from up North somewhere. He also carries a spear on his back with strange markings on the end of it. The man doesn’t seem to have a face that shows many emotions; it’s as if he were autonomous. “Welcome”, the woman at the front counter said as she greeted them with a smile.

                “How much for two nights?” the man asked. He didn’t even introduce himself or anything. He was straight to the point, not a word more.

                “Its one hundred and ten dollars a night so that will be two hundred and twenty dollars”, the woman said.

                “Alright”, the man said as he handed the woman money in cash.

                “Your room number is 408 on the fourth floor, here are the keys. Be sure to return them before you leave”, the woman said as if she had said the same phrase many times before. The man took the keys, not giving a second glace or even saying thank you. “I wonder what’s his problem”, the woman thought. As the man got into his room he gazed out the window deep in thought. He then sighed and looked at a newspaper. It had his picture in the front page that read “Police Hoping to Kill the Cannibal”. He threw down the paper in rage and disgust. “Ignorant bastards!” he screamed. He then decided to take a walk to hoping to calm his frustration. He didn’t care about what anyone else thought or if anyone else had read the newspaper and would freak out if the saw him on the street. He also knew now that his arrest would be inevitable. All he cared about was what he thought was right. So he decided that he would challenge this society. He was hoping to get arrested. As he began walking down the street he noticed some people looking at him in surprise. One person quickly pulled out his phone. This was exactly what he wanted. It wasn’t long before a police squad car suddenly stopped in front of him. “Put your spear on ground and get in the car!” the policeman demanded as he quickly got out of his car and aimed a handgun at the man’s head. “Okay”, the man answered simply as he casually put down his spear and allowed the officer to handcuff him without resisting at all. As he was sitting down in the police car, he took one last glimpse at the officer’s face. The police officer looked very surprised as it was unusual for someone to simply do as the officer says without any resistance at all. The car ride to the police station was awkwardly silent, no one said a word. As the policeman took the man out of the car he led to the interrogation room. The officer noticed that he had a strange smile on his face as he sat down at the table. A man soon arrived in the interrogation room with a serious and motionless expression on his face. “Tell me what your name is?” the interrogator asked the man.

“Auriga”, the man answered.

“Well that definitely matches this description, I know who you are, you sick son of a bitch” the interrogator said in a thundering, powerful voice.

 “Tell me then who am I?” Auriga curiously asked the interrogator with a slight calmness in his voice in his voice.

 “You’re the cannibal who came from that tribe up north” the interrogator accused.

“So? What about it?” Auriga curiously asked.

“You and your tribe are in Alaska, I believe your tribe is known as the Polaris tribe right, you’ve been abducting people from the very beginning and using them as meals” the interrogator answered.

Once again Auriga asked “So what’s your point then, you don’t like that so you’re going to lock me away behind bars?” Auriga questioned.

“You sick bastard! Don’t you even know that killing other human beings is wrong? What the hell is wrong with you?” the interrogator said in disgust.

“Tell me this then, what makes you think you know the absolute value of right and wrong?” Auriga asked.

“What the hell are you talking about? It’s obvious that killing people isn’t right!” the interrogator answered.

                Auriga grinned at the Interrogator “you’re just like all the others; you’re blinded by the ignorance of your societal norms. In truth there is no real answer for what’s truly right or wrong. Many individuals have their own definition of what’s right and what’s wrong. You were raised and told by your parents that it’s wrong to kill people. Where I came from; my tribe taught me that it was alright to kill anyone who was not us and then we must eat his body in order to purify his soul. This was what I was taught to be right. In truth what’s right isn’t a definite truth, it’s merely an idea that people believe is a definite truth to them. If I raised a child from your society, he wouldn’t be born knowing what the right thing to do is, someone would have to teach him what their belief of what’s right and what’s wrong is. Many people mistake such an idea as what’s right and wrong as a definite truth. We lose the perspective that right and wrong is only an idea the more we get older”, the man explained.

                The interrogator suddenly had a look of surprise across his face. He then walked out for a moment to think about how he could object to Auriga’s point. After about half an hour had passed, the interrogator had walked back into the room. This time, the expression on his face made him deep in thought; as if Auriga’s point had definitely gotten through to him. He knew Auriga was right, but he still wanted to prove him wrong. “Alright, the ideals you practice may seem right where you come from, but you’re in our society now, and in this society, it doesn’t matter what you think is right. If you violate the laws our nation has taken the time to establish, you will be punished. In other words, here in our nation; the majority rules despite what the minority wants to be right”.