What popular influence shaped your moral compass?

osaka35

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What are some of the popular influences that guide your moral compass growing up? What shows, books, songs, etc, shaped your moral compass?

For me, it was sci-fi shows like babylon 5 and star trek: next generation and deep space 9. The christian dren I grew up with only made me scared to question what I was told, for fear I would burn. scifi broke that cycle, and helped me understand the importance of questioning current beliefs.
Here's an example of the type of quotes that guided my moral compass (and please share yours):

"What is there left...if all of creation falls around us? There is nothing. No hope, no dream, no future, no life. Unless we turn from the cycle of death toward something greater...

You have let them distract you. Blind you with hate. You cannot see the battle for what it is. We are fighting to save one another. We must realize we are not alone. We rise and fall together...

if you fail in this, then none of us will be saved, and [we] will be only a memory. You have the opportunity, here and now, to choose. To become something greater, and nobler, and more difficult than you have been before.The universe does not offer such chances often."
 
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FAST6191

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To quote a popular song, though one released way after I had formed things.
Started out with nothing, still got most of it left.

Try not to hurt anybody else with your actions, unless they instigated it. Don't think that is from a popular influence but is what I had.

Anything is open to question, though try to make sure it is an appropriate time to do so. Also leads to a favourite teaching method of "until you can argue otherwise then do it this way".

So basically nothing. Though

Megatron must indeed be stopped.
 

astrangeone

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Full Metal Alchemist: “You cant gain something, without giving something in return” One of the reasons why I have a FMA tattoo on my ankle. (The homoculus symbol, minus the Star of David design.)

Star Wars (Extended Canon): weirdly enough, I agree with both the Jedi and the Sith code of conduct. The Sith speak of using emotions to gain strength and through strength, gaining power and then freeing yourself from chains. The Jedi are a bit more "hippy"/"spiritual" than the Sith, but they speak of the force binding people/nature together and nothing exists but the Force. But both have a degree of sensibility to them. (Although, as I said to a friend, I'd probably be a "grey jedi"/"lawful evil?", because

Star Trek/Babylon 5: Exploration and space diplomacy, coupled with very cool characters. (No, I don't like Sisko, because DS9 turned a series about exploring new planets/space into extreme space diplomacy...although Quark was one of my favourite characters.) Meeting Data/Brent Spiner in a Q&A made me chuckle - everything about Star Trek was about "being nice to Data, don't be racist to aliens, and don't underestimate the power of teamwork". Pretty much that....which is kind of crazy because the world is kind of dark right now. Also, like OP said - I learned to question how/why people did things like they did because of Star Trek.
 

vinipeix

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The show that influenced me the most was Castelo Ra Tim Bum, it is a pretty popular show here in Brazil which tells the story of a 300 year old boy who lives in a magical castle within São Paulo and lures some kids to it, so he can have some friends.
To this day I like it a lot!
programa-castelo.jpg

And the book that made me like them was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, before that I've just read the ones I was obligated to do so in school. I was 10 at the time, and I believed it helped me build some good moral. I've related a lot to Harry, since I didn't had many friends at that time.

"I'm not as good as you," said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him.

"Me!" said Hermione. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things — friendship and bravery and — oh Harry — be careful!”

Random quote :P

English is my second language (as you can see) and I've learnt it by myself with the help of some gaemz, mostly jrpgs. This made them even more special to me. The first game that I've understood it's history was Kingdom Hearts (2002, pretty late huh), before that I played things blindly.
KH's history values friendship and people like no other game I've seen, and that also changed me a bit.

Sora: Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone. It's grown with each new experience, and it's found a home with all the friends I've made.
I've become a part of their heart, just as they've become a part of mine. And if they think of me now and then... if they don't forget me... then our hearts will be one.
I don't need a weapon. My friends are my power!

EDIT: I forgot to mention Back to the Future
It was the first "sci-fi" movie I cared about, and this genre, like OP said, made me question many things about life in general.
 
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Tom Bombadildo

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I've never really used anything beyond "don't be a massive asshole" for my "moral compass" IRL.

But there is a quote from The Last Wish (from the Witcher book series) that I quite like:

“Evil is evil, Stregobor,” said the witcher seriously as he got up. “Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I’m not a pious hermit. I haven't done only good in my life. But if I’m to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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GTA was a huge influence and now I am a violent rapist, murderer, and thief. Video Games are evil and did this to me.
You should ask for your money back if you are unsatisfied with your results. Then use it for therapy. :P

Video gaames, and anime.

Yes, video games, metal gear series, Breath of fire series, Tales series, street fighter, there is a lot. While many don't agree i do admit some games teach very little about real life, as unrealisticly fictional the story/events are but there is quite a lot that is based on actual culture in real life, from religion, to belief in wisdom, gods, deity, other worlds, super natural things, ghost, to just plain common related stuff. Of course you have to understand what goes on in the games to get the moral.

Breath of fire is the struggle of a race of beings who can become dragons who live among other lesser life forms and while not understanding the reason for their existence they decide to kill them out of fear of being over taken. Pre emptive strike due to not understanding things.

Phoenix wright ace attorney is about people who commit crimes of murder and try to get away with it with the only thing in mind is not getting caught, so they do whatever it takes to get their way, mean while attorneys and prosecutors and judges are hired to push each other to the very limits of their skill not to get the client declared in favor of winning but to discover the truth according to them that is true justice.

Metal gear is... something about political struggle in a war like enviroment... and some maniac trying to take over the world.... (Okay is probably a lot to sink in, i'm not the only one) But each game in the series is based on a theme, while my favorite being Sons of liberty MGS2, which is about controlling people in a similar way we already try to do here... (SPOILER: is called meme, which the game is based on)

Tales of symphonia... Oh god where do i begin, well there is racisim, where there is half elves, who is rejected by both full elf and human kind, there is deception, the idea of someone crazy enough to call themself god and creating a process that somehow has the "chosen one" sacrificing their life over and over in a cycle created to revive the self proclaimed god's dead sister and blame everyone else for this... there is more to say but it will feel more like a rant than a actual breifing on the general idea.

Anyway you get the idea, i may not directly get the moral compass thing but i just wanted to point out a few things, the idea was accmulative, as you continue to play more and more games to gather all the different things into one general idea. But yeah, games do more than just entertain people with mindless violence like parents think, they do have a aspect of sharing things that can be acknowledge in real life.
 
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osaka35

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Video gaames, and anime.
For sure! I can definitely pinpoint particular lessons learned from video games and anime. Not new ideas, just my first exposure to them. Kingdom hearts: chain of memories, for example, gave me that our memories have no inherent meaning, and only through our action of giving them meaning do they matter in the slightest.
 

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2 things.... video games .and my dad

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I've never really used anything beyond "don't be a massive asshole" for my "moral compass" IRL.

But there is a quote from The Last Wish (from the Witcher book series) that I quite like:
I remember that one
 

Youkai

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I always listened to "Benjamin Blümchen" stories ...i i guess they shaped me a little and even though I never wanted this to happen I have some characteristics from my dad

Anything else was always me as I hardly ever did something as the "normal" people would do.
 

Jack Daniels

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i base my moral on the one principe: if you don't like somthing to be happening to yourself, don't try it on someone else... if you make a joke about someone else or a groupp in general, always be ready to get one back and always check if it didn't hurt him or her. help others but don't loose yourself doing so... Don't ever fix what isn't broken to begin with!
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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I also said anime, as it seems many of the things i learn is from japanese media, even though is probably not faithtul due to localization but still it holds moral value. Lots of things here is not really for teaching just entertaining people and pulling their emotions around. Besides most shows now and days are like hour long and i don't watch them. Used to be cartoons that were like 3-7 minutes and have like 3 episodes in only 30 minutes with commercials, then last like 11 minutes with ads up to half hour, they put 2 with in the programming block, now like every prime time show on major networks is hour long a episode. Only very few i watch, and again not very serious about learning something.
 

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