A blog from Los Angeles about ethics…
Welcome to my second Jerusalem Post blog. My first was designed only to give you a flavor of my sometimes-irreverent writing style and an idea of what these blogs are all about. Hopefully, at least I succeeded in that!
Now, as I sit here in Los Angeles wondering what I should offer you in this my second blog, a thought occurred to me:
All of the blogs on our The-Gift-Tree.com site offer a gift to help you bring your ideas to life—and to bring life to your dreams. Obviously, how you use our gifts is totally up to you. What did occur to me, though, was how you could all use many of our gifts to support whatever particular political or social leaning you might have.
One example of this was in my first Jerusalem Post blog in which my gift was “Assume Nothing!” I would imagine that those on the Israeli political left and right (and those in between) could offer many examples of this to support their particular leaning. And I have no absolutely problem with this...
But, when it comes to a conversation about ethics, however, I don’t see much wiggle room here. It seemed to me that we’re looking at options that are either black or white, with very little gray in the color spectrum.
I also don’t happen to think that your response to the Test will have anything to do with where you are on the political spectrum—either in Israel or anywhere else …
I suppose this blog tests my thinking here … So, PLEASE don’t disappoint me!
Some background to my test…
When I researched my book on America’s huge financial scams, I couldn’t help but notice how so many of America’s finest and brightest had watched these scams being perpetrated in front of their very noses. I couldn’t help but notice how they all looked away and did nothing to stop those scams. Indeed, many actually benefited enormously financially by doing so…
It seemed to me, therefore, that when these folks had to choose between their self-interest and integrity, this was simply not a contest… Integrity was the big loser…
Then, when I couldn’t help but notice how so many of these folks went to America’s finest business schools, I discovered that cheating in those same schools was pervasive. Not only did the students at these schools look away as their colleagues cheated, the faculties and administrations did the same. The students wanted to get ahead and the schools didn’t want to offend their financial boosters by expelling their kids.
So, again, where these students, faculties and administrators had to choose between their self-interest and integrity, this was not a contest… Again, integrity was the big loser. No, folks, this wasn’t even close…
In all these cases, I questioned the culpability of those who looked away and did nothing as those around them lied, cheated and acted corruptly…
I wondered if, in some bizarre way, these folks were actually MORE culpable than the actual perpetrators. Why? Because these were the folks we trusted to PROTECT us—and they all let us down. They all preferred to line their own pockets at our expense…
The test…
So, here is a blog I recently wrote that contains the Ethics Test…
I would note that the vast majority of those who have recently taken that Test in the US passed it—while almost all of the finest and brightest to which I referred above and many of the students, faculties and administrators to which I referred would clearly have failed the Test—miserably…
I KNOW you’ll do better than them…
Enjoy!