2nd Term Ethics Reflection

    So I get to tell you what I learned about Ethics and Social Responsibility here in my second term at PSU. Now I realize that all that is required of me is to basically repeat what I said about it last term, stating the niceties about ethics that everyone already knows and then telling you how much my time here at PSU has taught me that these are great things, but I'm not going to do that. You know why? Because that's not what I learned.

    I learned that ethics are a social construct that can only be afforded by the rich but are mostly discarded by those same people. Ethics as a permanent institution of thought are not practiced by our government, our business community (and yes, that includes PSU graduates) both nationally and locally, our social organizations, higher institutions of learning, or our public schools. So who does that leave ethics to? Environmentalists commit arson in the name of protection, our government executes people for no apparent reason other than it can, our schools institute draconian rules that stifle productivity, freedom of speech has been regulated, our priests have violated the sanctity of the church as well as ruined the lives of many young men, businesses routinely buy and sell people, and millions of people in Africa are dying of AIDS and no one cares. I could go on, but why? I'm already depressed enough.

    What does this tell me about ethics? Ethics are for the weak. If I allow myself to be bogged down with these so called "principles of morality" I will soon be the one in need, and no one will feel the ethical need to help me. Ethics are an outdated tradition now. In philosophy this term I learned that we are all products of random genetic mutations, there is no life after death, and my being here and my ability to propagate my genes is only a matter of survival of the fittest. If this is true, then where does this morality fit in? Where does it come from? Why should I feel ethically inclined to do one thing over the other? Why should I care about you? If this is the only life I have then I should spend it doing whatever makes me happy at the moment, and caring about whether or not my actions are "ethical" is immaterial. Social responsibility is a myth, a tradition living in the memory of Judeo-Christian values from a time when our country was a Christian nation, which it certainly is not now, since many of us who claim to be Christians are merely trading on the name.

    This is what I learned this term, and yet it still pains me to believe it. I want to believe like Anne Frank, that people are basically good, but every time I almost convince myself of that someone comes along and proves me wrong. Should I be an example for others, that one shining light in the community, leading others in an ethical revolution? Maybe, but I doubt that is what will happen. The more likely scenario is that the world will, like with so many others, drain me of my ideals, and in short order, make me one of them through compromise and peer pressure. I'm going to try and resist, like so many others have, and I don't know how it will turn out, but we shall see. Look me up in ten years and I'll let you know. (Thursday, March 10, 2005)