Our world is in a ethical crisis from a global economic predicament to terrorism and to ethnic wars; from the Boko Haram terrorist organization kidnapping more than 300 girls from their school to new social movements protesting in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia; from Russia fomenting unrest in Ukraine to the Chinese government harassing its weak neighboring states; from human trafficking, to poverty, inequality, trade boycotts, and violations of justice and human rights–all have advanced a range of ethical, social, and political issues. In a world where there is a huge disparity between the haves and the have not’s we have, on the one hand, someone who has so much that he does not know how to spend it, and, on the other hand, someone who strives to find a cup of rice to fill the stomach. Our global world is in an ethical mess. The question being asked is how did we get into this mess? More importantly, how can we get out of this mess?
Our world is facing a serious crisis of ethics. The definition of ethics is a standard of behavior derived from natural law. These standards regulate the conduct of our behavior and our relation to one another. The problem is that our global world, as well as our society, is rejecting the very notion of ethics as something objective or universal. Instead, we are accepting the idea of moral relativism in which every one is right, there are no standards of right and wrong, and the teaching of ethics becomes difficult at best. If there is no basis for judging anyone’s actions as wrong or inappropriate, the only thing we could do is to say they are illegal. If there is no objective ethical standard by which society can measure people’s behavior, how can we even talk about unethical actions or moral values? How can we measure Boko Haram’s behavior in kidnapping schoolgirls and threatening to sale them into slavery? How can we measure Russian President Putin’s behavior in taking over Crimea? How can we measure the Chinese behavior of threatening their neighbors’ territory?
In a world that believes in relativism, when as a matter of fact we know every man-made system and law has loopholes and boundaries, no mater how carefully crafted the regulations are, unethical people will find a way around the letter of the law and will not be constrained by laws. Therefore, determining what things ought to be and building some ethical standards become important for the survival of our free society. History records periods when seemingly “Might makes right.” A good example would be Crimea voted to join Russia, but the United States and the European Union condemned the Russian acts and placed economic sanction on Russia. Yet, at the same time, Western allies armed faction groups in Syria to fight against Syrian President Assad, and simultaneously do nothing about North Korea that has caused the unspeakable suffering of its own people for decades.
According to Socrates, the more men value making money, the less they value virtue. The same phenomenon may be seen in many of the mega churches that preach about how to make money in a “prosperity gospel.” How, then, can bankers, leader of the corporations, politicians, and decision makers learn to be ethical? For a long time, at least in the United States, some schools would not teach business ethics. Today, even if they allow teaching business ethics, they may offer only one course on ethics or on corporate social responsibility, which will not improve ethical behavior, especially if it teaches moral relativism. Interestingly, business schools have taught moral relativism and then find their graduates, not surprisingly, getting sent to prison for embezzlement, money laundering, or other “white collar” crimes. I think that it is time for all the institutions to get more serious about moral psychology. We need to understand why people behave unethically, even when they think of themselves as ethical. The problem is no longer why the university does not teach ethics courses, but rather, how can universities through not only their business schools but also their regular courses teach their students and leaders to practice ethical behavior? Since ethics comes from our personal environment and inherent motivations, then we should be open to change the unethical environment.
It is sad to say that now days, even some Christians have lost the ethical categories of right and wrong. Currently we live in an ethical free world. Moral Relativism provides no clear foundation for a safe and orderly society. In our global world, if all people are free to choose for themselves what is right, how can countries agree on and enforce even minimal rules? Thus, the only precept that would be available would be might makes right, like what the Chinese are doing to some of their neighboring countries or what some corporations are doing to the small business owners. If there is no ultimate moral law, what will motivate people to be virtuous? During the Enlightenment the so-called intellectuals began to argue that since God was no longer needed to explain creation, God does not need to establish moral laws. People will reason out and come up with something for the basis of morality. That notion raises the question of can man be good without God?
People without a personal morality will mostly likely fail to create public morality. Too much trust in human goodness has led to a massive disconnection between the public and private realms, so that many in the Philippines say, “It does not matter what politicians do or do not do in their private affairs,” or “it is no one’s business what I do in private matters.” We have developed dualism between body and person. Similar to how good trees will produce good fruit, good politicians and good leaders will produce good public service. The Philippines has one of the best legal systems in the world, but the problem is that these laws are not being implemented or enforced. These problems cannot be solved by public policies but only by the practice of virtues. For example, a television news show said that a total of twenty senators, including Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, declared Chief Justice Renato Corona guilty of betraying the public trust and committing crimes. The most interesting part was that most of these senators who voted and found Chief Justice Corona guilty were quoting from the Bible and made a case how they voted to remove Chief Justice from his office based on its principles. But today, some of these senators are named on the list in a corruption case involving Janet Napoles’ pork barrel scam. In short, our culture is in an ethical mess. Moral truth has been neglected and is not being practiced. Clearly, our culture of impunity needs to be abandoned and instead a culture of moral truth put into practice
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com