Ethics and dilemmas

The general theme among people is that they take ethics too simply… living in an idealistic world that can never be accepted by a materialist such as myself.

People, naturally, tend to believe in a universal principles and ethics. Ethics that is right every time wherever you apply them. For example, rape is always unethical. There isn’t an issue when addressing personal ethics since they are, by definition, relative. For example, I think drinking alcohol is unethical (notice the capital ‘I’). However, when we address it on a universal level, how can we judge the ethicality of alcohol, or lack of it thereof?

Some people discussed that the”creator of the world” decides what is universally ethical and what is not. However, the “Creator “changes his mind all the time. For example, alcohol was Okayed by Judaism but banned by Islam. So the unethicality of alcohol is not universal even from the “Creator”.

An argument I heard is that “The majority” decides what is universally ethical. In addressing this issue, most of the world, including the three monotheistic religions, thought slavery is ethical. Now most of the world thinks it isn’t. “ The majority” cannot be taken as an evidence that an idea is true or false for there are other factors that determine what the majority agrees on other than ethical grounds or merely rights and wrongs ( economical in case of slavery).

More importantly, and even on a personal level, I struggle to know what is ethical and what isn’t. I am loosing the sense of wrong and right because of this ethical struggle. I am loosing the answer even in clear matters, to most humans, like slavery, underage sex, killing the innocence, or racism.

On personal level, the question of ethics is very simple but when you are in a position to decide what is allowed in the society and what is not, it is most confusing.

For example, why is slavery wrong? How is it so, principally, different than working with a contract that does not allow you to leave? How is it different than the way we treat our housekeeper (not allowing her to get of the house without constant supervision, taking her passport, and decide for her even what she wears or who to have sex with.)

If I were in a position of power would I be so enthusiastic about illegalizing slavery? Not without calculating the benefits and costs of it. I know that a lot of people in a lot of societies would be willing to sell their children to slavery to eat for a year or two. We banning slavery is like telling them” no it is unethical to sell your children” without addressing the ethicality of hunger. We shouldn’t do that but exactly that is the case.

What is more unethical hunger or slavery? Hunger or prostitution?? I don’t know…

But that raises another ethical question. Is it ethical to let the father decides which of his children to sell to feed the others? Does he have ultimate ownership as to decide the fate of his children for ever through selling them in the market? Better yet is it ethical to sell children to get life luxuries (an iPhone)? How ethical is it to build a factory and employ women and men to conceive babies for sale (is it better for them than hunger)? How ethical is it for society to decide that it is better for THEM to be hungry than to sell babies?

Do you see how even a trivial ethical issue, such as slavery, might not be as trivial and straight forward after all?

Another issue could be race. We think that racism is wrong, or at least a lot of us do. However, should we ignore any research that concludes that some races are dumb, less productive, have lower IQ; even if the research isolate “Race” from other socioeconomic factors ( such researches already exist underground)? Is restricting research ethical only to preserve political correctness? Or to make some people in the world happy by lying to them? (Gender presents a similar ethical dilemma, what if we (males and females) are not equally smart, productive…etc)

I am not sure how society solves these dilemmas, but if you are not obsessed about justice, like me, these ethical dilemmas aren’t hard to solve... However in order to address this question, how to solve these dilemmas, we have to know the Ultimate Social Goal.

It does not seem justice is a goal in most societies, even though there is, always, an “optimum” amount of justice. Reaching the highest level possible of happiness is the aspiration of society and that’s where those issues get addressed. It does not matter where truth is, if most people believe that their happiness is in illegalizing slavery, that’s where society will “head” (not necessarily “reach”, the issue is much more complicated)…

Is the maximum amount of happiness prevents high ethics in some societies (does it prevent society from moving against sex with underage children problem we have in Saudi Arabia)? Why does society prevent making ethical dilemmas as complicated as I am trying to make them? Is it human nature to do so?

Radi Alzayer

16th of May 2011

Thanks Saeed Altufaif for triggering this subject

Photo is from: http://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/slavery02.jpg