Dear Jordan, I would take your theory to a deeper level (I'm sorry if you did already, I didn't read all the posts 'cause I'm in a hurry, but your post stroke a chord and I wanted to answer) and bring Nietzsche up, with his theory of how all philosophies are built the same way and it's hard to get out of the box because you think on the structure on which your language is built on. I would go way back to our parents and the society directing us in a certain direction, which is quite deep and hard to realize completely how far it goes. But even like that, at one point in your life you can choose to go back as far as you can and change everything. If you're really smart, as far as building another language on new rules. Just because we, humans, in time, built limits, doesn't mean that those limits really exist anywhere else than in our heads. It's all your choice. It stroke a chord because a few months ago, when I turned 18, my dad asked me how I feel. And I said it's all a bit frightening. Because I realized that no matter the age, I could still find fingers to hide behind, but in the end, in front of myself I'd have to be honest and admit it was me who took all those choices. Being so free can scare you a bit. It does scare me and I'm pretty sure it scares everybody. You can find all the philosophical deep fingers to hide behind, but the truth is quite as simple as it seems. Leo Tolstoy said "Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.". That's just how it goes, no matter what you add around it, it might be sparkly, it might be pretty and interesting, it might seem smart and profound, but it's still not it. You can cut your fingers off. You can do whatever you wish. The only reason you don't do it is because we only have one instrument to use through all this freedom and that is logic. And people lose logic. Think about all the teenagers and pop stars who do all of those non-sense things for attention. Wearing a telephone on your head is not so far away from cutting your fingers, conceptually speaking, there is still no reason. Sorry if it seemed immature or anything, but I think keeping it simple is really the best option. - Silvana p.s.: not reading the whole discussion was using my free will and I'm not proud about my choice, but I did it, not because anyone else or destiny or anything at all say what I have to do now is more important, but because I consider it more important. My theory: There is no such thing as Universal good or bad, it's what each individual chooses is good or bad for their own self. The fact that some choose to follow others instead of thinking their own values doesn't mean anything, it's still a choice.