Do you "inherit" the ethics of the job you do?

[daedalus_dude]

I think you do. You break it you buy it.

If you are a scientist and work for a company that does unethical science, you are to blame.
If you work for a bank that cheats people out of their life savings you are to blame.
If you are a cop that enforces unethical discriminatory laws you are to blame.
If you are a soldier that fights an unethical war you are to blame.
If you enforce unethical migration laws you are to blame. Work for a company that puts toxin in foods and don't blow a whistle? You are to blame. Working as an executioner, you inherit the ethics of the death penalty. Doing tests on animals? Better make sure you agree with the ethics of it and are willing to stand up for it.

There are of course these cases where a person has no other choice than to do exactly what they are doing. But I would bet in 90% of the cases "I had no other choice" is code for "I took the path of the least resistance.

A sense of personal responsibility. We need some of that.

[sharp_stick]

1. Wow so simple

It must be nice, to be able to live in that world of pure ethical bliss you have.

Unfortunately the world is filled with shades of gray and not everyone can be in a place of simple black and white.

[daedalus_dude]

2. Just because the world isn't perfect doesn't mean we cannot strive to make it so.

[blogslut]

3. I bet you're under 30

?

[daedalus_dude]

4. yup.

[blogslut]

6. Then I have some advice for you

Just wait till you're older.

[daedalus_dude]

7. I will keep that in mind.

[tjwash]

5. What are you, 12 years old or something?

Grow the fuck up and stop expecting the world to conform to what your view of perfection is you self centered little jackass.

[phasma ex machina]

8. Stay golden.

Don't let the curmudgeons get to you. Your words remind me of the Nuremberg Defense of "only following orders."

[ashling]

9. I'm slightly over 30 (by nearly that many years) and I think you

make a good point. (I am making the assumption that you are "under 30" from some of the other posts here)

I would, however, suggest that you consider some flexibility - not in your idealism - but in your application of this concept to the world in which we actually live. Yes, the world is far from perfect, and I to am inspired by the challenge to see the world not as it is, but as it should be.

In my life I have quit several jobs rather than become complicit in what I considered to be ethical wrongs. It was not always easy financially, but I was always better off emotionally.

However, it is a stretch to say that someone who makes the decision different from the one I made is "to blame" for whatever generic or specific ethical lapse is occurring.

The complexities & interconnections we experience every day make it difficult, if not downright foolish, to hold on to too many absolute judgments about behavior that we cannot comprehend.

I applaud your idealism and sense of ethics. Hold fast to your standards for your own life, but be wary of judging others by those standards. You may come to find that you have trouble keeping them yourself.

Let's talk in another 30 years. (LOL) In the meantime, don't let the bastards get you down!

:hi:

[juno jones]

10. I think of bill collectors

and insurance flunkies.

Absolutely, the evil permeates your soul.

The only bill collector I've ever known allowed his 9-month old rottweiler puppy to die of dehydration. Teh Callous is more than skin deep, methinks. Of course how many of those people were already sociopaths when they took the job, being mean to people was probably a perk in their book...

Hell, I feel uncomfortable cooking french fries and nachos sometimes, its like I'm contributing to the problem and not the solution although it's all the work I can find right now and my chef is trying to steer the direction of the restaurant into healthier choices.

[Brickbat]

11. So...what's a perfect job well done? What's the cleanest, shiniest job someone could be doing?