Why should we be moral? What do we owe to others? To answer these questions, we need only look to the effects of normative practices. Normative practices include not just morality, but also various sorts of etiquette. I propose that the reason we put our napkins in our laps is the very same reason why we don’t run around killing. To the extent that we value a functional society, we ought to value the normative. The effect of the normative is to uphold society itself. We could have no stability without our little customs. The norms may be conventional, but over time there has been a certain balance struck, a sort of homeostasis.
Who needs society? Most of us. There are some who truly flourish outside the constraints of manners and morals, but these people must go away from society to accomplish this. No one can live outside of society while living in society. Not successfully, anyway. You see, the norms enforce themselves within their jurisdiction. I don’t mean that there is agential intention at play, no. Rather, the meat machines we are do the work. The norms live in our minds, and our bodies are their conduit.
This post is descriptive in nature. It is just a fact that aberrations are transient in society. Those of you who deviate from the path will learn this soon enough. The rest of us will ascend to heights as yet unattained.