Ethics in Our Daily Life
Ethics has become one of the hottest topics in recent years, and rightfully so. From scandals in federal and local governments to mortgage fraud and corporate manipulation of financial records, the list of ethical breaches goes on and on. Despite our altruistic tendencies, ethics is a very complex topic to discuss, especially when it comes to practice. Almost all of us want to take a firm stance on what is right and wrong, and there is obviously no disagreement there. The issue arises in the practice and execution of these lofty ideals. What is one to do when faced with a tough choice where temptation inevitably takes over, and seldom can a person hold on to the values and ethics they are taught and so vehemently believe in?
Why do so many of us take the easy way out instead of toughing it out? This is a question that baffles many of us. In a democratic society where the majority rules, this has a lot to do with it. The definition and understanding of these ideals are becoming murkier. As modernity takes root and more of us believe in freedom of all sorts, yesterday’s values have become less important, and everything goes in the name of freedom. As a society, we have to decide whether we need to draw a line somewhere or eliminate ethical norms completely. Our ethics are drawn from our family, religion, and society. All three of these elements are intertwined and permeate into each other. With the advent of modern liberal society, we tend to, in the name of freedom, hardly ever take a stance on anything. Since we live in a democratic society where a fractional majority makes any issue right, we tend to forget that forty-nine percent of people disagree or have different opinions. This flaw in the system causes many of us to stay quiet and agree and yield to the ideas imposed upon us by the so-called majority.
Another area that needs to be addressed when discussing ethics is capitalism. The notion that we have no limits on how much wealth we can accumulate and that there are no boundaries regarding which laws, morals, and ethics we can bend or break to attain wealth is causing many of us to let go of our moral compass and replace it with a personal compass whose needle is under our command. We have to reassess and rethink where all this greed is taking us. Global economic decline and continuous political unrest may be due to our liberalism toward every topic and issue. Power and wealth should not define morality and ethics. When that happens, we all know what kind of definition we get. Big companies ruin our environment in the name of economic growth. Prosperity is valued over almost any ethical policy, moral value, or sincerity. If our nation is getting fat, who is to be blamed? We first make people overweight in the name of economic prosperity and then treat them for all kinds of diseases in the name of creating the largest healthcare industry. When human values are replaced with dollar values, the outcome is what it is, and this course will not change if we do not wake up and smell the coffee.
Penny-wise, pound-foolish. We tend to persecute people for shoplifting, while corporate manipulators get away with egregious crimes. We hold a student responsible for pulling a prank and put him in jail, while bankers who lose billions of dollars in gambling walk in society with their heads held high. These incidents are becoming so common that we, as a society, have become numb to any pain. We tend to let all the big crimes pass, yet our judicial dockets are filled with cases that should not even be considered.
The path we are on does not seem sustainable, yet we are so convinced that ours is a virtuous path that we export it with force to other countries.
As mentioned earlier, ethics is so complex that we really have to analyze every angle and measure every inch of it. Can we overlook petty infractions and work on the bigger issues, or do we have to apply moral standards to every member of our society? How can we convince people to have a higher moral ground, and what is higher moral ground? The scope of this article is not to delve into detailed discussions of these perennial yet extremely important questions. What we can do is start thinking about the course we are charting for our upcoming generations. Ethics itself needs reassessment; it needs to give us a new moral compass that does not permit us to discriminate against or marginalize people. Where do we leave people alone, and where do we intervene and try to change their course? These are difficult questions and will require grappling with issues in an honest and sincere manner to come up with solutions.