Shafts of light pierced through the east-facing windows illuminating the floor in a camera reel pattern. I removed the blanket and instinctively reached for my phone. Looking through the notifications, I noticed a peculiar lime green calendar pop-up: “Mother’s day.” “आयी शपथ! मी कस विसरलो? “I exclaimed in my mother tongue. (rough translation: ‘How did I forget?’)
For the rest of the day, it felt as if I was walking on a tight rope, worried that my mother might bring the subject up. Luckily, my mom, in the most unusual nature, forgot it was her day. But knowing she would figure it out sooner or later, I rushed for a solution. Going through multiple scenarios, from getting my dad to drive me to Ulta to walking to Target, I realized my mother would discover I am gone. Which would have terrified her initially and spoiled the surprise because my dad would have told her where I went to calm her down.
Thankfully, my mother herself unintentionally gave a solution: she wanted my dad and I to help her shop at the Barton Creek Mall. Which was a fantastic solution because my mother would never doubt that I would be interested in any of the shops except the ice cream vendor.
Once at the mall, my dad snuck me a $20 bill, and I made an excuse to go to the bathroom. Keeping one eye on my mom’s location, I made a beeline to ‘Bath and Body Works.’ In the store, I browsed through the various sections: Men’s, Flowers, Fruity, and Specials. Smelling the various aromas was as much joy as later presenting the gift to my mom. After testing many options, to fulfill my wish, I selected the ‘1000 wishes’.
To not arouse suspicion, I hurried to my parents from the back, so that they don’t see me. I swung around the left of my mom and presented her with the gift. To my delight, she loved it!
Calculating the intent, actions, and consequences, did I act morally or immorally?
Immanuel Kant, the 18th-century philosopher, would state that I was immoral because I lied to my mother by going to the gift shop than going to the restroom. According to Kant’s 1st categorical imperative (the universal law), an action is only ‘good’ when it can be applied in all scenarios. And because if everyone lies, then there will be no trust, which is essential for a functioning society; therefore, lying is immoral. It can also be argued that I did it out of fear of repercussions.
Those who prescribe to the school of Utilitarianism would counter Kant by stating that the morality of consequences is more important than those of the actions. Because at the end of the day, my mother was happy, lying does not matter. Furthermore, some might argue that I bought the gift out of guilt of not getting anything for my mother.
With arguments on both sides, what do you believe? Was my net morality positive or negative?
Conscience of Aniket 
I think the argument of net morality of this is more complicated than it appears. As a society we have deemed hiding or lying for the greater good as a normal and even noble act. This is apparent in this story, as it resulted in happiness for your mother. But that doesn’t mean it truly was acceptable. In theory, all lying, hiding, or misleading is considered wrong in principal. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be used for the greater good, but if the roots are set in something wrong, it will not grow to be as strong as it would have otherwise. This is clear in the story, where a better outcome could have been reality through a truthful alternative. At the end of the day, its a circular question.
My verdict: It doesn’t matter. While I’m not convinced the net morality was either positive nor negative, a better outcome was an option if the better route was taken, but with the lesser path taken, a lesser result came to fruition. It’s all relative, so the question is really weather or not you settled for less due to your own shortcomings as a human. But the mistake itself is all part of the complex human nature. (I’m sure it wouldn’t have made too much of a difference to your mother either way- God bless that sweet woman)
– Your favorite sister
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