Who's to say what is wrong?

Dictionary.com has several definitions of “wrong,” but the number one definition is: Not in conformity with fact or truth; incorrect or erroneous. “Wrong” can be used to describe many different things, can be used as an adverb, a noun, and even a transitive verb. It is not how people use the word wrong that defines what it means; it is what people mean by it.

“Wrong” means different things in every aspect for diverse cultures everywhere. Also, “wrong” could mean certain things for families within one culture. When one family may see some things as the right way to do them; another might have different beliefs or morals that would lead them to think “wrong” means something completely different. When someone considers what is wrong with something, they must first decide what seems “right.” It is human nature to look at things as opposites, seeing things strictly as one way or another. This “black and white” world helps us determine what is right and wrong so we can easily apply it to our lifestyle. For example, when New York’s World Trade Centers went down, America saw the terrorists and what they did as wrong, however, in the eyes of the terrorists and their followers, it was very right. So, who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong? If I said it was wrong that President George Bush won the presidency, many people would disagree with me and say it was clearly the right decision. How can we ever determine what’s right and what’s wrong, to separate all actions and beliefs into two categories? The answer is we may never do this, we may never all unite under one way of thinking. The “black and white” way we see the world is simply a product of our environment. It is because we come from different cultures that we decide what is right or wrong. If we all thought the same things were wrong, than we not only would have to come from the same culture, but free will wouldn’t exist. There would be no free will to commit wrongness and no free will to decide what is the right way of life.

Something to consider, then, is if there will never be a complete wrong or a complete right, than perhaps everything is neutral. Perhaps there is no black and white, but only gray. It might be possible that people have been putting so much time and energy trying to figure out what’s wrong with their lives, what they do, and what’s wrong with the world, that it didn’t occur to them there might be nothing wrong at all. If wrongness isn’t “inconformity with fact or truth” and anything that is wrong is defined differently all over the world, than fact has no truth and truth can never be really proven.

We use "wrong to describe what each of use individually think is wrong. Whether someone has been taught otherwise or not, everyone has free will and that keeps what is right at bay for different incidences. What is moral? What is just? Whatever you answer, it's still wrong, for someone.