Who decides right and wrong? According to Business Law 060, ethics can be based on a number of ethical theories. There are theories that say that whatever is best for society is ethical, but there are other theories, primarily ethical relativism, that say that whatever you decide is ethical is right. Who decides which theory everyone else should follow? Why should I be worried about anyone else? What’s to keep me from stealing money or cars or anything else in order to benefit myself? That’s perfectly moral according to ethical relativism.
On top of these questions, what does it mean to be ethical? If you behave in a “moral” manner, does that make you better than the guy down the street who sells meth to kids? Again, it comes back to whose right it is to judge. From a religious standpoint, there are some very clear rules stated in each religion as to what is or is not moral, but there are quite a few gray areas too. Take driving, for example. A few nights ago, I was late getting home. I was driving along in a hurry when I came to a stoplight. The light was red, but there was nobody else around, not even cops. Would I be acting unethically if I blew that red light, even I was not putting anyone in danger? Many people would say that I broke the law, therefore blowing the light is wrong. Now say I had someone who was dying in the backseat of my car. If I blow through the red light, they live, if I stop, they die. Is it still wrong to blow that red light? Yes, because I broke the law. But then didn’t I just save someone’s life? Or, if I stop, didn’t I obey the law, but kill someone?
Maybe morality is based on a points system. To blow the red light simply to get home faster is -1 point for breaking the law. To ignore it to save someone, or stopping and having them die would then be a total of 0 points; +1 for stopping or saving someone, and -1 for ignoring the light or letting the person die. Even religion cannot completely explain this one. You would have to imagine 99% of religions would say that you have a duty to save that person, and yet those same religions would probably say that you must obey the laws of authority as well.
Another possibility is that morals are based on karma. Similar to the points system, you get good karma for doing good things and bad karma for doing bad things. However, it’s more of a weighted points system, where saving a life would give you more good karma than running a red light would give you bad karma.
I don’t really care what you believe about right and wrong, morality and ethics. I simply pose this little problem to you in order to get you thinking. And through this thinking and these questions, I actually would like you to answer one question for me. It seems simple, but clearly there is no “simple” in morality. My question is this: after reading this and thinking about right and wrong, who the hell are you to judge what I do or what I have done in my past or what I will do in my future? My belief is that there are exactly two people who can and will judge me: myself and God. You may or may not like what I do with my life, and you have every right to tell me that, but before you judge my character based on isolated instances, remember that you have no idea what I’ve been through in life or what has shaped me up to this point. There’s a reason I do what I do, a method to the madness. You can get sneak peeks into that through my writing and spending time with me, but don’t EVER presume to know me enough to make a judgment on me or my character.
© 2007-2011 Jacob Tauer
This information is not to be used in any form, online or off, without the express permission of the author
No comments:
Post a Comment