Following is the lead essay in this week’s issue of A-Clue.Com, send Fridays to all our subscribers. (Want to be one? Click here.) Enjoy.
This will be my last Clue before the 2006 election. Unlike years past, I make no predictions. I might jinx things. (Illustration from Applied Technologies, which sells a course on the subject at hand.)
Instead I want to discuss a political issue that goes beyond politics, ethics.
I was angered recently when, after former Enron head Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to jail, TV reporters said that he had "ethical problems." He didn’t. He broke the law.
Maybe it’s just another case of Republican projection, but we have heard a lot of crap these last decades from that side accusing Democrats of having "situational ethics." Again, the claims made against Republican officials today aren’t about ethics – they’re violations of the law.
Ethics is different. Having ethics means you don’t even approach law-breaking. It means you avoid the appearance of law-breaking. Certainly it’s not against the law to cheat on your spouse. Ethical people (those who try to practice high ethics in their lives) know that if they did cheat, at least one person would know – they would. And this stays them.
The same is true with financial matters. Fiduciary responsibility means more than not breaking the law. It means avoiding any situation where it might appear, later, that you were even thinking of going there. It requires you to go the extra mile and show transparency in all your dealings, to put the interests of those who’ve given you this responsibility – shareholders, policy-holders, savers – first.
It extends to all forms of management. Harry Truman’s sign that "The Buck Stops Here" (above) meant he would take responsibility for things he did not do. Any manager or politician who tries to lay-off bad actions on underlings violates this ethical principle.
My son’s school is planning on creating an Honor Code. We had an honor
code at Rice, when I went to school there. It’s a good thing to have.
But it has no value if it’s only policed, even by those who are covered
by it. It only makes sense if everyone polices themselves, if everyone
becomes convinced that violating the code, even appearing to violate
the code, will stain their very soul. Because it will.
One reason I think we’ve lost our ethical bearings this decade
is that we’ve lost the idea of satiation.
For every rock star or
business tycoon who chooses to give of themselves, or to give away
their fortune, there are 1,000 or more who are going around buying
ever-bigger boats, ever-bigger homes, ever-gaudier parties and trips
for themselves. Sometimes they even make fun of the selfless ones –
that’s the whole point of Forbes Magazine.
Why do they do this? (Detail of original art by Chris Bergquist Fulmer.) Because they are taught by society – by Republican
society – that they should never be satisfied with what they have, that
they should always want more. That going for "it all" is somehow
ethical. And so those who are fortunate to find success in life do just
that, they go for more.
They’re like dogs, really, who will eat-and-eat-and-eat until
they die if you let them. No, they’re worse than dogs. Dogs, as they
fill their bellies, share their food with other dogs. These bastards
don’t.
Instead they defend Paris Hilton’s fortune and march against
the "death tax." Instead they argue against any taxation of income and
call that the "fair tax." Fair to them, no one else. There’s a lack of
ethics deep in their political souls.
Beyond the idea of satiation, having ethics also requires that you
consider the interests of the larger society, of your fellow man, of
the greater good. If you only care about yourself, you don’t have
ethics. Ayn Rand did not have ethics – she turned the whole idea on its
head and called that ethics. It’s bullshit.
But here’s the big thing about ethics. It’s practiced in secret. It’s
private. It is truly your choice. If an oppressive government is
restricting your movements, or forcing you to give up all your money,
you’re not practicing ethics – you’re just oppressed.
Ethics comes into play only when you have a choice. It’s whether you
tell yourself the truth about yourself – and many people don’t.
When my 15-year old son gets into an argument, for instance, his
ethical sense can go out the window. Right or wrong cease to matter.
Winning the argument is all that matters. So he will lie about what he
just said, lie about what he just did. Until he has the time to reflect
on what happened. Then he will apologize and try to learn.
Republicans – today’s Republicans – don’t do that. The Thesis
of Conflict is based on continuing, unrelenting anger. Anger at the
other, the gay, the black, the female, the young, the Muslim, the
Communist, the Democrat. The opponent. Which leads to seeking the
destruction of the other, and in that the destruction of the self.
Without that anger they’re lost. It’s the ethics of the cornered beast.
And you can’t live that way, as Mark Foley found out. As the writers of
Seinfeld wrote a decade ago, "Serenity now. Insanity later."
The thesis of conflict made some internal sense 40 years ago, when
middle-class values were truly under attack by young people, when the
"Second World" of Russia and China did in fact seem to have more people
in it than the "First World" of America and her closest allies. But
with the fall of the Wall all those enemies were defeated. Yet the
anger went on, always seeking new enemies within and without.
However you decide to vote tomorrow, I ask that you don’t confine your
practice of ethics to the voting booth. It’s easy to condemn an
unethical politician, a fallen preacher, a thieving businessman.
What’s harder is to look inside your own heart, to do so honestly, to
go over all your actions and ask if you’ve truly been ethical. It’s a
test we all fail, at various times. Unlike the legal test, the penalty
for breaching ethics lies only in our own conscience.
Build your conscience. Practice satiation. Consider your fellow man
sometimes. Do this in your business, in your life, and in your own
family, and you will win the inner smile that represents true fortune
in this world.
You’re doing yourself and the people you stereotype a huge disservice. In painting every Repbulican with the same brush of absolutism your engaging in a classism that is no less heinous than any form of racism.
You write about Open Source. If you’ve ever contributed anything but discussion to the process I don’t have evidence of it. On the other hand, I provide Open Source Software. Rather than sit on my capacious bottom and rail about how “they” are greedy bastards, I’ve sunk some years of my life in actually providing OSS, gratis, no strings attached. People seem to appreciate it as well: VIC CRM’s got a five-star rating at OpenNTF.org. So it’s not Apache, but I do my part, and my walk and my talk are perfectly aligned.
Is this satiation in action? You bet your calloused tuchus it is! I could do better selling the stuff. But I live in a small town, in a modest house, and I simply don’t need much in the way of money. As I often say to my customers, “I’m in this to make a living, not a killing.” But I wrote a nice bit of kit, and it’s no skin off my nose to let other people use it as they like. Open Source mentality is not now, nor has it ever been, a virtue solely reserved for Democrats.
I’ve repeatedly (four times) opened my own home to the homeless, for six months or more at a time, to help people get back on their feet. And in practice, IT WORKS. Over and over again it works. Seriously, what does it cost you in real terms to open up a spare room in your house and let somebody stay there until they can get a job and save some money for a security deposit, month’s rent, and a little financial cushion? Answer: not one thing. If everybody did it there would BE no homeless. AT ALL. No government programs required. Now just imagine that, and ask yourself who’s living in your guest room. And ask yourself, too, would you still do it if you didn’t get a tax credit? ‘Cause you don’t.
This is something that would normally never come up in my conversation or blogging because your right about this: ethics — and charity, for that matter — are properly practiced privately. Not entirely in secret, though; because an important part of ethics is providing a positive example to others.
And I, like many others who do the same things, am a Republican.
I’m a Republican who fully believes that it’s possible to teach someone to fish for himself, and I’ve proved it in practice repeatedly. As a philosophy it beats the hell out of feeding him with fish stolen from my neighbors. You do not need to wait for a government program to help people. You do not need to “let George do it.” Empowerment is more than simply empowering others; it’s realizing that you yourself are empowered to change your circumstances and the circumstances of those around you. And then it’s about getting off your duff and acting on that realization.
I’m a Republican who’s not out to pollute and desecrate the environment. I’ve already discussed this at length George Ou’s forum. In fact, I don’t know a single Republican who IS out to tear up the environment. There are those, though, on both sides, who need education on what what that really means.
I’m a Republican who absolutely believes in equality of opportunity. There is NO reason whatsoever for discriminating against OR FOR someone for any reason other than proven performance. Everyone has the right to be given a chance. Martin Luther King hit the nail squarely on the head when he said a person should be judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin. And since you’re so fond of dredging up ancient political history, Dana… it was a Republican administration that nearly tore this country apart rather than condone the continuation of slavery. And don’t you forget it. There are racists of every party and every color. Surely you see that, it’s right in front of you.
When you paint everyone with the same brush you’re being intolerant. You’re engaging in exactly the kind of behavior you claim for the other side. You’re applying academic forty-year-old “theses” to a political party that is evolving and changing… faster than YOU, not to put too fine a point on it. There are SOME members of the party (many of whom are old and dying) that deserve that treatment. But the majority don’t.
Tell you what, Dana… you live in Atlanta, right? I’m practically next door, in Union, SC. I’m a founding member of a local theatrical project. You can read about it here: http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2003/02/a_more_perfect.php. Do read the link, it will open your eyes. We do two productions a year, each of which is unique and original. In two weeks (the weekend of the 18th) the Christmas play will be performed. I perform in the summer show, but I prefer to watch the Christmas show. I’ll reserve you a ticket (and one for you wife if she’d like to come), and since it’s a pretty long drive, I’ll even put you up for the night. Hell, I’ve got a couple of books on local history I think you’d really like, and they’re yours whether you come or not (just send me a snail mail address to dave.leigh@cratchit.org) Purely a social thing, and I won’t get all beligerent and argue politics with you because we don’t do that here. Come on down. If you can tell who’s a Republican or Democrat I’ll eat my hat. Frankly, I don’t know myself. When it comes to social issues, politics don’t matter in this neck of the woods; just doin’ what’s right.
You’re doing yourself and the people you stereotype a huge disservice. In painting every Repbulican with the same brush of absolutism your engaging in a classism that is no less heinous than any form of racism.
You write about Open Source. If you’ve ever contributed anything but discussion to the process I don’t have evidence of it. On the other hand, I provide Open Source Software. Rather than sit on my capacious bottom and rail about how “they” are greedy bastards, I’ve sunk some years of my life in actually providing OSS, gratis, no strings attached. People seem to appreciate it as well: VIC CRM’s got a five-star rating at OpenNTF.org. So it’s not Apache, but I do my part, and my walk and my talk are perfectly aligned.
Is this satiation in action? You bet your calloused tuchus it is! I could do better selling the stuff. But I live in a small town, in a modest house, and I simply don’t need much in the way of money. As I often say to my customers, “I’m in this to make a living, not a killing.” But I wrote a nice bit of kit, and it’s no skin off my nose to let other people use it as they like. Open Source mentality is not now, nor has it ever been, a virtue solely reserved for Democrats.
I’ve repeatedly (four times) opened my own home to the homeless, for six months or more at a time, to help people get back on their feet. And in practice, IT WORKS. Over and over again it works. Seriously, what does it cost you in real terms to open up a spare room in your house and let somebody stay there until they can get a job and save some money for a security deposit, month’s rent, and a little financial cushion? Answer: not one thing. If everybody did it there would BE no homeless. AT ALL. No government programs required. Now just imagine that, and ask yourself who’s living in your guest room. And ask yourself, too, would you still do it if you didn’t get a tax credit? ‘Cause you don’t.
This is something that would normally never come up in my conversation or blogging because your right about this: ethics — and charity, for that matter — are properly practiced privately. Not entirely in secret, though; because an important part of ethics is providing a positive example to others.
And I, like many others who do the same things, am a Republican.
I’m a Republican who fully believes that it’s possible to teach someone to fish for himself, and I’ve proved it in practice repeatedly. As a philosophy it beats the hell out of feeding him with fish stolen from my neighbors. You do not need to wait for a government program to help people. You do not need to “let George do it.” Empowerment is more than simply empowering others; it’s realizing that you yourself are empowered to change your circumstances and the circumstances of those around you. And then it’s about getting off your duff and acting on that realization.
I’m a Republican who’s not out to pollute and desecrate the environment. I’ve already discussed this at length George Ou’s forum. In fact, I don’t know a single Republican who IS out to tear up the environment. There are those, though, on both sides, who need education on what what that really means.
I’m a Republican who absolutely believes in equality of opportunity. There is NO reason whatsoever for discriminating against OR FOR someone for any reason other than proven performance. Everyone has the right to be given a chance. Martin Luther King hit the nail squarely on the head when he said a person should be judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin. And since you’re so fond of dredging up ancient political history, Dana… it was a Republican administration that nearly tore this country apart rather than condone the continuation of slavery. And don’t you forget it. There are racists of every party and every color. Surely you see that, it’s right in front of you.
When you paint everyone with the same brush you’re being intolerant. You’re engaging in exactly the kind of behavior you claim for the other side. You’re applying academic forty-year-old “theses” to a political party that is evolving and changing… faster than YOU, not to put too fine a point on it. There are SOME members of the party (many of whom are old and dying) that deserve that treatment. But the majority don’t.
Tell you what, Dana… you live in Atlanta, right? I’m practically next door, in Union, SC. I’m a founding member of a local theatrical project. You can read about it here: http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2003/02/a_more_perfect.php. Do read the link, it will open your eyes. We do two productions a year, each of which is unique and original. In two weeks (the weekend of the 18th) the Christmas play will be performed. I perform in the summer show, but I prefer to watch the Christmas show. I’ll reserve you a ticket (and one for you wife if she’d like to come), and since it’s a pretty long drive, I’ll even put you up for the night. Hell, I’ve got a couple of books on local history I think you’d really like, and they’re yours whether you come or not (just send me a snail mail address to dave.leigh@cratchit.org) Purely a social thing, and I won’t get all beligerent and argue politics with you because we don’t do that here. Come on down. If you can tell who’s a Republican or Democrat I’ll eat my hat. Frankly, I don’t know myself. When it comes to social issues, politics don’t matter in this neck of the woods; just doin’ what’s right.
All I can say Dana is that if that’s what you teach your son about ethics, then I hope your son goes through life getting his @$$ handed to him on a paper plate. It reminds me a lot of the most important lesson my Dad ever taught me about sportsmanship. Being a USC alum, SC football was everything. I didn’t even go to USC and SC football is still everything this time of year! But the lesson was, “it’s never okay to cheer when someone gets hurt — unless they play for Notre Dame”. The difference between what my Dad was teaching me and what you’re teaching your son is that my Dad was half joking. You on the other hand would elevate support for (increasing) the minimum wage to an ethical issue when there is overwhelming economic evidence that something like EITC is far more effective at lifting poor families out of poverty, while keeping more entry level jobs safe from outsourcing and automation so people at the bottom can continue to, you know, work.
You are stuck in very old thesis: “Republicans are evil.” But there’s a flip side to that thesis as well: “Democrats are stupid.” Deliberately confusing ethics and politics is the ultimate example of the latter. Truly evil people have great fun kicking around the stupid. Just look at the continued beating John Kerry takes.
All I can say Dana is that if that’s what you teach your son about ethics, then I hope your son goes through life getting his @$$ handed to him on a paper plate. It reminds me a lot of the most important lesson my Dad ever taught me about sportsmanship. Being a USC alum, SC football was everything. I didn’t even go to USC and SC football is still everything this time of year! But the lesson was, “it’s never okay to cheer when someone gets hurt — unless they play for Notre Dame”. The difference between what my Dad was teaching me and what you’re teaching your son is that my Dad was half joking. You on the other hand would elevate support for (increasing) the minimum wage to an ethical issue when there is overwhelming economic evidence that something like EITC is far more effective at lifting poor families out of poverty, while keeping more entry level jobs safe from outsourcing and automation so people at the bottom can continue to, you know, work.
You are stuck in very old thesis: “Republicans are evil.” But there’s a flip side to that thesis as well: “Democrats are stupid.” Deliberately confusing ethics and politics is the ultimate example of the latter. Truly evil people have great fun kicking around the stupid. Just look at the continued beating John Kerry takes.
I would add this to Brad’s comment: John Kerry makes a perfect example of the depth to which an instatiable, out-of-touch elitist can fall, and congress is full of these, both republican and democrat. At his most diligent, Kerry is present at the capitol for a mere handful of votes each year. Regardless of how agreeable hiw speeches may be to anyone, he certainly doesn’t put service behind his convictions.
I would add this to Brad’s comment: John Kerry makes a perfect example of the depth to which an instatiable, out-of-touch elitist can fall, and congress is full of these, both republican and democrat. At his most diligent, Kerry is present at the capitol for a mere handful of votes each year. Regardless of how agreeable hiw speeches may be to anyone, he certainly doesn’t put service behind his convictions.
And Brad, good for you for opening your house to people who need a home. Seriously good.
And Brad, good for you for opening your house to people who need a home. Seriously good.
No Nate, David is the one who opens his home to homeless people. I stick to homeless dogs.
No Nate, David is the one who opens his home to homeless people. I stick to homeless dogs.