The Unethical World

Every single day you make logical ethical decisions without even knowing it. When you order a meal at a restaurant you pay the bill because it is ethical to do so and unethical not too. The problem is that there is no absolutism in ethics. It is a constantly evolving and changing idea. It is relative to who you are and where you are at what time. How violence is looked at depends entirely on the area that you are in. There are many guidelines that people follow to better them selves but there is never one absolute rule and often rules conflict.

Chernobyl has recently been revisited after the nuclear meltdown 25 years ago. Although we do not know what exactly happened at the plant we do know that there was disagreement between the upper and lower management in the plant. The upper management followed contract ethics according to their higher management, which said that if not all was going well somebody had to be punished. The lower management followed publicity ethics knowing that if something was going wrong they didn’t want upper management to know about it creating conflicting ideas.

Another example of conflicting ethics is Glenn Beck’s uproar right after the economic crash. This is an example of Rule Ethics as he wanted everybody else to be afraid of the coming doom. Many people followed but all of a sudden the market is starting to turn itself around and he is losing his roar. The people are now recognizing that we are in the clear are moving toward a Utilitarian idea where everything you do is for the good of the people. Glenn Beck’s ideas are no longer for the good of the people. His ideals are falling apart beneath him and he needs to transition as the world transitions.

Ethics are certainly not perfect but they are incredibly useful. Sometimes ethics are very simple and sometimes they are incredibly complex. One of the most common debates although certainly not recent is whether or not abortion should be allowed. This is incredibly complex and includes many different forms of ethics including Kantian and Niche. It also applies heavily to the situation that these ethics apply. At many hospitals they have ethics committees that go over whether or not one should be allowed to preform a certain operation. Whether or not it is ethical to do certain things to one’s body is entirely debatable.

So how do we solve this problem of conflicting ideals? To tell you the truth it is entirely up to you. If there is no one rule and neither of you are technically wrong sometimes it is better to back off. Although this seems difficult nobody ever said it was. Wait be passive today and strike aggressively tomorrow.

Social Super Hero

If you have lived in the United States for the past 30 years of your life then you know that this society is based on how you socialize with other people. A large function of what goes into your ability to socialize is your identity. There is one important thing that you must understand about your identity, even though you shape that does not mean that you have the right to decide what it looks like in the end. That is for the eye of the beholder. This is what is called ascribed identity. I have seen friends who are not homosexual but have been believed to be homosexual based on their actions and I have also had friends that are homosexual but have not been perceived to be.

I recently had a friend that was thought to be a homosexual by what he considered to be a close friend. This process continued for some time before my friend realized that his friend perceived him differently then he thought he saw himself. This did not just put him in the position of ascribed identity but also gave him membership to a group that he may or may not have wanted to be a part of. This group does not have a lot of privileges. In fact this group is a target of oppression. This is when a group has disadvantages or barriers that puts them in a specific place in society. These barriers are called institutions.

A great example of oppression is taking place in Libya today. There are two kinds of people in currently present in Libya. There is the military and there is the average citizen. The thing is that there is no way that the people decide whether or not to be a civilian or part of the military they have an ascribed identity. And then on top of having this ascribed identity they have been oppressed by the government and forced to live miserable lives. Although there is oppression there is also privilege. These are advantages that you are born with unless you believe in Horatio Alger who said that all men were equal, but some just worked harder than others and that is why they were better off. If other people worked as hard, they would be well off too. But If I am born a white straight male then more likely then not I am better off then any other circumstance.

Privilege can also be abused. One such idea is Egypt where the leader abused his power for a very long time. It angered the citizens and eventually caused an uproar, which took his privileges away.

People are oppressed but people with privilege oppress people. It is very important that we do not mix the two ideas together and cause an uproar like what happened in Egypt.

The Culture Problem

To be a successful leader you need to be inclusive. But the problem of culture makes it very difficult to be inclusive. There is what is known as the iceberg effect. You see how big the iceberg is above the water but you cannot accurately depict how much of the iceberg is under the water. There are many things that you do not know about a culture until you actually deal with the culture. For a small example most people do not know that it is incredibly rude to show the soul of your shoe in the Middle East. It would be the same as giving somebody the middle finger here in the west.

A greater example was when I arrived in Tucson. I come from a very large metropolis where you must be on time to everything and everything that happens, happens very quickly. It took me a long while to notice the difference when I came here but the speed at which things happen is very different from the city. People talk very slowly and expect the same out of you. When I talk at the speed that I am used to talking people find it very difficult to understand me so they ask me to slow down. When people show up to class I am very used to being in class at least five minutes before I am required to. It seems here that people are used to arriving between 5 or less to class. Now this could actually be one of two things. One it could be the culture of Tucson or two it could be the culture of the university. One way or another it is still odd and it is something that I did not see coming. Lastly was the way that I talked. Most people here have a basic American accent, which I also thought that I had. It turns out that I have the slight tint of a Chicago accent that some people questioned why I talked that way. It is also distracting to me when people try to say Chicago because I say it so different from them.

These are all part of the iceberg effect things that I could not see until I traveled under water out of my comfort zone. It is important to travel underwater as a leader.

A good leader has to be willing to exit his or her comfort zone for the betterment of society. When volunteers head over to japan to help with the earthquake the must understand the needs of the people that they are dealing with. The way that you greet people in Japan is very different from what you do here in the United States. Things like this should always be considered.