Stages to developing a mature understanding of goodness:
First step, babies and children equate receiving approval with being good.
Second step, older children will begin to understand, vaguely, that being a good person requires more than just receiving approval.
Third step, starting with teenagers, is the realization that being a good person and receiving approval are two separate things. Sometimes they overlap, often they don’t.
Often a person will get stuck on the first or second step.
What goodness is not:
Defending family, friend, or coworker even though you know they are wrong.
Arbitrarily fighting the other group or tribe simply because they are other.
Never backing down without considering if perhaps you are wrong.
Juries can see the defendant and make judgments based on factors not important to the case
Not all defendants present themselves well and are judge negatively
Some defendants present themselves very well and are judged positively
Juries of private citizens do not know what they are doing
Juries are asked to make judgments on law they have little understanding of
Juries are not trained to ask the correct questions concerning how the lawyers conduct their cases (i.e. did the lawyers ask leading questions, important questions, questions that mattered to the case, etc.)
Juries make too many judgments based on gut feelings.
If we develop immoral behavioral patterns, we will be immoral. (i.e. In other words, "teach your children well".)
Habits, good or bad, will become a part of who you are and can be difficult for a person to recognize in themselves.
How we think
Thinking is habitual too.
We think in loops. Rehashing the same thinking habits over and over. If it’s a good thinking habit, well that’s good. If not, it can lead bad behavior.
We often never consider that we might be wrong, preventing any hope of correcting personal errors. Self-examination can be one of those good thinking loops.
