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A few Scenarios... • Take a moment to imagine you are on vacation, stretched out on a vast expanse of white beach, with no one around for miles. You are finally getting that relief and tension from daily life that you deserve. You can feel yourself relaxing and the stress flowing out of your body. You can feel your mind detaching from everyday concerns as you drift between waking and sleeping. Suddenly a scream breaks through your state of bliss.
Your entire being suddenly shifts into gear! In a single movement your body and mind rise together into a state of action. Who screamed? Are they drowning? Where are they? How do I help them? Find out! Get to them! Save them! Keep them alive! • The scream is a call for help, but why do you react? Without thinking you feel an inner tension to respond. But do you? Think of this in terms of ethics vs. Morals. Is this something that we are born with, or is it a learned behavior?
Another scenario... • Imagine you are walking downtown in a typical Canadian city. You meet someone who asks you for some spare change. You saw this person sitting on the sidewalk a couple meters back and you were already debating as to what you should do. You probably went through a number of emotions. • “Oh the poor guy...” • “Get a job.” • “I have better things to spend my money on.” • “He will probably just spend it on drugs and/or alcohol.” • “The city should do something about these people.” • “Maybe I should cross to the other side?”
Even when you refuse to give your spare change, you are not finished with your request. The needy person is still in your head while you are still defending your decision not to give – or your decision to give. It all starts with the human face, or the face of someone in need. Face to face encounters remind us of our responsibilities to others.
Two more.... • Imagine that there are a pair of shoes you have wanted for a long time, and you are in the store today visiting them simply because you do not have enough money to buy them, and won’t for awhile. But today you notice that they are repairing the security gates at the entrance of the store, and you know you will not “beep” when you leave the store if you were to shove those shoes in your bag and walk out. What would you say if you got caught? What would you say if you didn’t get caught? Would you care? Would you feel any different than if you bought them? • Is this experience of feeling obliged to follow a law or rule ethical or moral? Why do you know it is wrong to steal, cheat, or kill?
Last one... • Think of the heaps of corpses of the Jewish people in death camps during the Second World War. Or think of the 7,000 men and boys who were butchered by the Serbian army in 1995. Finally think of the genocide in Rwanda. The world reacted to all of these terrible acts with anger and revulsion. Think of the way you feel when you think of these injustices or others such as battered women and children, the division of wealth in society. You may feel shocked and disgusted because of the contrasts that occur from what you expect from fellow humans. Think of this scenario in terms of ethics or morals.
Ethics or Morality • Do they mean the same thing? Not quite. Ethics is more interested in the good that humans tend towards, such as happiness and freedom. Morality is more interested the ways in which humans can attain this good, such as the rules, laws or commandments which we experience as a duty or obligation to follow. Ethics guides morality; it gives vision to our action. Ethics is like understanding music theory, knowing how to read music, and understanding technique. Morality is like actually playing the music, hitting the right notes, and performing.
5 questions to answer... • 1. How would you describe personal experience from the perspective of each of the scenarios? • 2.What reasons or motives might you have that would cause you to respond in one way or another? • 3.What makes you respond in these situations? Why? • 4.Under what circumstances would you respond differently? • 5.What makes these responses ethical?
