It is basically a code of conduct that is put forward by a society when someone has to do something right. Basically it helps us in taking right decisions when we are faced with such opportunities.
But by this age, we are all mature enough to know that the whole world is not exactly Black and White and many things are situated in place that is often dubbed as the "grey" area.
There are many decisions in our life that fall in this region and it is how we tackle those decisions that makes us what we are and how we are perceived in the society.
Now a classic example of moral ambiguity can be the Nanavati court case of 1959.Most you must have heard about this case recently in News channel debates when the verdict on the gruesome murder case of Neeraj Grover was given which made headlines when one of the lead accused Maria Susairaj was found not guilty of killing Neeraj Grover. This case was compared to the Nanavati one because of the Crime of Passion theme that both had followed but my interest in the Nanavati case lies not because of the crime that was committed but the moral ambiguity that followed it.
What happened in the Nanavati case was that KM Nanavati who was a naval commander murdered his friend, Prem Ahuja who was his wife's lover. The background of the case was that as Nanavati was a Naval Officer who was away from his home for long periods of time due to his assignments. This left his wife lonely and she eventually fell in love with his friend Prem Ahuja. Now this love had grown to such an extent that Nanavati's wife was ready to give divorce to her husband and then go and marry Ahuja. One day, when Nanavati returned back from one of his assignments, his wife confessed to him about the affair because she now doubted her lover's intentions of marrying her once she gave divorce to her husband. Naturally this came as a shock to Nanavati and he dropped his wife and kids in a cinema hall and went straight to his friend's place along with his pistol which he took on false pretext from the naval yard. When Nanavati reached Ahuja's residence, he confronted his friend on whether if he, Nanavati, gives divorce to his wife, will he marry her and accept his children into his household. After Ahuja replied in the negative, Nanavati shot three rounds from his pistol and Ahuja dropped dead. After this, Nanavati went straight to his superiors, confessed to the crime and surrendered himself to the DCP of Mumbai.
For those who interested in every aspect of this case the wikipedia link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KM_Nanavati_v_State_of_Maharashtra.
As we can see here, we are faced with a real dilemma. Legally, this case might have a different tone and I am saying this because I am not a lawyer or a judge. But to normal person, he obviously faces a dilemma. On one side is the accused husband who is ready to give up his own married life so that his wife can lead a happy life with his lover.On the other side, the victim is basically a playboy who stabs in the back of his friend whenever he goes out of his home by going out with his wife. I know what you are thinking right now. You are obviously in a dilemma. The husband is ready to sacrifice anything for the happiness of his wife but he shot down his friend.But that very same friend has betrayed him but he died and that is not acceptable as well.
It is very difficult to decide what to do over here. And that was what actually happened at that time. Ultimately because of all the media coverage, the jury voted in favour of Nanavati and he spent only three years in prison.
Moral Ambiguity has become a new rage in the circle of arts as well. We have many movies nowadays that deal with such themes. An example can be Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight which explores the theme of to what extent one should fall when one's nemesis follows no rules because if you follow your nemesis's methods, there is nothing that can differentiate you from your nemesis and on the other hand if you stand guard on what you are, you risk losing against your enemy.Another example that can be considered is the video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent where the protagonist Sam Fisher who works for the CIA must work as a double agent within a terrorist group and report to his superiors in CIA but he must also work for the terrorist group to maintain their trust in him. Often these objectives clash with each other and one must then choose a suitable option and move forward but the problem is that in each option you stand losing something. For example, at a particular level, the terrorist's decide to bomb a cruise ship in the middle of sea. Of the protagonist lets this happen, the CIA loses trust in him and 30,000 people die as a result of the explosion. On the other hand, if he stops the explosion, his cover within the terrorist group gets blown and the CIA would no longer receive any sort of valid intel from that group.
Moral Ambiguity thus is something which all of us would face at some point of time in our lives. It is at these moments when sometimes choosing a lesser evil can also be a very dangerous move.But why does this happen? It is because our code of conduct or morality still views everything from within the framwork of "Black and White".It is just too simple for a world that is as complex as ours.Viewing from the perspective of Chaos Theory, it is just a simple system that has been forced upon a complex one and when something like this happens terrible things are bound to happen.
Why did the Allies win the WW2 because it was made abundantly clear to everyone that the Nazis were the bad guys and they were needed to be weeded out before they caused anymore trouble. Today's situation is very different from what we had 70 years ago and thus a time has come to change the moral code of conduct which is more in accordance to today's life and not something that is very ancient. It should adhere to spirituality and not religion because spirituality does not always go hand in hand with religion. And why I believe that morality should adhere more to spirituality because it is through spirituality that we can connect with who we are and thus pass on a judgement that would be truly correct.
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