Which is more valuable …material things or the ethical life?
Of course, it is not a choice between one or the other: a person - whether very wealthy or very poor - can be highly ethical. Or both may exhibit, and/or exemplify, immorality.
In the U.S.A. we have made money into a god. When you ask someone how they’re doing, they primarily think in material terms; everything else is secondary.
Let’s examine the benefits of each:
MONEY gets you all the food you can eat; a nice place to live; a new car every year; freedom, and (say if you buy a seat in Congress, or a media conglomerate, or a dictatorship) even power.
ETHICS. Decency, civility, a good character, a sense of responsibility, a disposition to kindness, integrity, cooperativeness, a capacity to focus on a project you enjoy, and to be creative, to, in that sense, have ‘a work ethic’; an attitude of gratitude; caring about a healthy life and a healthy world; a love of learning; an appreciation of beauty, truth, and goodness; a striving to add value, to be constructive; in other words, by being ethical you can get some enduring human relationships, some love, a high quality of life, a sense of well-being.
Being ethical IS rewarding, but most people do not yet understand or appreciate that. They seem (morally) “asleep or dead.”
Conclusion: It is ignorance of the long-term benefits of being ethical that keeps us all from having a better world.
Many people will do anything for money. Why? Because they see immediate benefits.
My argument here is that being ethical is MORE VALUABLE for us than the pursuit of materialism. [size=85][In earlier posts I have explained why this is so and have employed logic to demonstrate this fact. I gave theory and reasons.
Is it possible that reason - bare logic - without emotion and emphasis is just not convincing to the lay person, to the proverbial “man in the street”? And it’s perhaps not appropriate to arouse emotions at a Philosophy site.][/size]
Granted, a lot of people get rich because they were unethical. They did whatever they could get away with. You all know about such business practices and have probably experienced some in your life - in which you were the victim …I mean the customer, or the patient. Many, if not most, politicians can be “bought.”
Why do they pursue monetary gain or profit above everything?
It is because they are vividly aware of the benefits of money ! Money lately is the token necessary to exchange to get something to eat if one is starving - starving due to lack of demand (and thus no work) in the field for which one is trained and has achieved some high level of skill. And this is the position in which many good men and women find themselves these days. Money enables good people to get into debt. Borrowing beyond the means to repay has ruined many a life.
The folks who advocate a Resource Based Economy {the Zeitgeist Movement, videos about which you can see on You Tube} claim they have a better idea: they say we ought to find out where the resources are in the world, and distribute them (provide the basic minimum of food, clothes, and shelter) directly - without fee or charge - to the people who need them, thus setting the world free to have the leisure and opportunity to create technological innovation. They recommend a priceless society, “priceless” in more ways than one. They urge we should utilize automation to the fullest now, turn all human drudgery over to robots immediately, turn jobs into hobbies and vocations, thus liberating the whole world. We have severe crises and contradictions in the money system today, they argue, that aren’t going to be solved unless we revolutionize the economy. [size=85]Essays and articles advocating this approach are here: http://www.theresourcebasedeconomy.com/ They now have chapters in most major cities.[/size]
However, keep in mind that as a species we are getting better, ethically-speaking. Until about 1800 human beings were a bunch of savages, primitive and ruthless. Slavery was universally present. We tore limbs off people, stretched them on a rack, burned heretics slowly to death on a stake, drowned women - charging them with being “witches.” Some of these practices persist even today in Saudi Arabia where they will cut fingers off your hand if you happen to commit what they consider to be a transgression. Also in Myanmar (formerly Burma.) It’s not too pleasant to live in North Korea either. Keep in mind that three percent of the U.S. population are sociopaths, some of them highly-skilled, and may be prominent members of society. They have an inability to care or to empathize with the suffering of others. {One of them even became Vice President. I shall not mention any names.}
Do you forum members here at least agree that being ethical is better than the love of money for its own sake? Which habits will you attempt to form? Will you dispel ignorance about the principles of Ethics?
I’d like to hear what you think about all this. Comments? Suggestions?