Across the world, to fight for a moral cause is seen as heroic, while the morally corrupt and dissolute are villains to be shunned. Yet, the outcome of claimed moral actions is often problematic. Western charitable efforts, such as Food Aid in Haiti, can collapse local agricultural infrastructure and devastate farmers. Mother Theresa, made a saint by the Catholic church for her work in the slums of Calcutta, used donors’ money to promote her fundamentalist Catholicism rather than helping those in need. School closures during the Covid pandemic were justified as saving lives, but are now seen by many as having harmed children and widened inequalities in education. Even admired principles can reinforce condemned practices, such as the use of Gandhi’s anti-violence to consciously maintain the Indian caste system.

Should we stop calling actions moral or immoral, and instead focus on their consequences? Is morality a rhetorical device to authorise our behaviour without further investigation? Or, is morality essential to, not just society, but what it means to be human?