What is Morality?

This seems like the most vague question ever--what is morality? Well, I guess we all have to admit that we have got into arguments with people sometimes due to our actions and value that differentiates us from one another, but even so, because there is no "correct" morality or moral high ground for our daily actions. Some may say that it is the alignment to law. But laws are not there to standardize morality, it is there to act as a set of regulations and policies, that demonstrates consequences for one's actions against it. These policies are set not to let the world remain moral, but to let it be under control and within the limits and capabilities of humanity.

The reason why I started getting interested in this question is when I read the book 看见 by a formal Chinese journalist, and one of the things she reported about was when a male ordered a female to step on a cat and posted the video of her stepping on the cat on the Internet and how people started to debate on whether that is moral to do or not. A cat is an animal. Humans are too. However, there are no laws explicitly stating that non-human animals cannot be exploited, this action contradicts with a lot of people's values, making it immoral for some.

What we can all agree on is that there is no standard for morality. Everything in this world could be immoral--the fact that we depend on other life forms to survive, the fact that we drive cars and pollute the environment when we depend on it to live, the fact that some people eat avocados when shipping them kills thousands of bees.... the list goes on. To me though, because humans are animals, and a cat is also an animal, in the sense of morality, it may not be the most moral to step on another life form and kill it when it is essentially our counterpart. You may also start to argue that the protection of our environment is not essential then, because all we are saving are plants, and plants are not our counterparts anyways, so why bother saving it?

Sure, plants are not conscious, and they are not sentient beings. However, because their livelihood and existence also affect our lives due to the chain of the ecosystem, saving them would equal to saving ourselves. Back to the point on the morality and treatment of animals, I believe that unnecessary exploitation to animals are immoral, meaning we should not treat them like so without a clear purpose (the purpose should not be for sole entertainment and pleasure as I believe if we set that as one of the choices of "clear standards", anything on this planet could be argued as a form of entertainment and there would be no regulations or policies set that can work purposefully).

Maybe my argument is not valid and strong enough, but my value and belief system revolves around being kind and caring to every specie when possible. I believe all life forms will be exploited at some point but the how and why is what is the important part of this decision. When choosing to act upon something, knowing a clear purpose and motif is more important than how you exploit it, as morality is what drives purpose, and purpose then drives action.