Tortured or inexplicable defenses of otherwise clearly wrong behavior in public dialogue are often the product of cognitive dissonance. Saying sorry before, during or after an unethical act is almost always insincere, but even it it isn’t, it doesn’t mitigate the conduct. But the misconduct of a victim never justifies unethical conduct directed against that victim. However, when it is used as a substitute for analysis, it is pure rationalization. Ethical people possess consciences, self-control, and the rational ability to deny and resist “wants” that involve betrayal, hurtful conduct, crimes and wrong-doing. These stories often end badly, with the larger child finally deciding that he can take no more, clobbering his tormentor, and being called a bully for doing so. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The rationalization therefor implies that the lucky are lucky because of some special virtue or value. Much that is unethical is not illegal. Some excuse Bonds on the grounds that whatever advantage he thought he was gaining by using PEDs, they were imaginary. Abortion is complicated; capital punishment is complicated; the Israel- Palestinian problem is complicated; illegal immigration policy is complicated; euthanasia is complicated; the proper use of U.S. power in the world is complicated. That’s not the Golden Rule, however. Citizenship, an ethical value, requires obeying the law, but a lot of people convince themselves that that laws are voluntary, and that it is somehow ethical to violate “bad” ones, defined, of course, as those that are inconvenient, burdensome, or that stop you from doing what you want to do. Even the police departments that’ve helped us in the past with gambling and other things are gonna refuse to help us when in comes to narcotics. Through the ages, we have been perplexed at the fact that people who don’t play by the rules have an apparent advantage over those who do, and “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!” has been the rallying cry of those who see the abandonment of values as the only way to prosper. It was originally a White House proposal, designed to force Congress to either swallow painful cuts or boost taxes. It’s indisputable. The Dealer’s Excuse, in addition to being a rationalization, is often disingenuous. Imaginary Consent, “He/She Would Have Wanted It This Way”. 32 B adds the nasty little element of alleged hypocrisy to the mix, making it especially effective. The simple answer to them is that even assuming they are correct, when more people engage in an action that is admittedly unethical, more harm results. Bias makes us stupid, and since almost everyone is biased toward children, Rationalization #58 has the effect, and the intentional effect, of spraying Stupid Gas far and wide to ensure that reasoned analysis is impossible. Nevertheless, the doctor was still an incompetent, dangerous doctor. Of course, much of the time, especially when The Idiot’s Proof is offered by journalists, pundits and politicians, “some say” really means “I say, but I don’t have any justification for my opinion, or the guts to say it directly.”. Learn about some common rationalizations that can cloud our judgment when we are involved in making tough ethical decisions. Rationalization 51 is The Apathy Defense, or “Nobody Cares.” The theory there is that as long as “nobody “is bothered by the unethical conduct, it’s ethical. This has long been the refrain in the Barry Bonds argument for baseball’s uber cheater to be admitted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Because she may be wrong, mistaken, or a fool. Second, it doesn’t matter: this is just a personalized fractal of the hoariest rationalization of them all, Numero Uno, “Everybody does it.” Unethical conduct is not cleansed because it has company, or, as in this case, might have company. This preview shows page 3 - 5 out of 7 pages. The King’s Pass, The Star Syndrome, or “What Will We Do Without Him?”, One will often hear unethical behavior excused because the person involved is so important, so accomplished, and has done such great things for so many people that we should look the other way, just this once. Many of the rationalizations involve a wrongdoer’s claims that the victim of wrongdoing justified the unethical act. What my mother wanted, we both agreed, was to live forever. The libido “wants” pleasure and gratification, even if it is adulterous. Art Ethics: The South Carolina Toilet Brush Flag, This Helps Explain Why Trump Is President, Eight Inspirational Football Locker Room Speeches, Ryne Sandberg's Acceptance Speech for the Hall of Fame, Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, Society's Building Blocks: Critically Thinking About Things That Change Society, Ethics Seminars, CLE, Training and Consulting. According to one study, there are four common rationalizations for justifying misconduct: Saul W. Gellerman, “Why ‘Good’ Managers Make Bad Ethical Choices,” Harvard Business Review on Corporate Ethics (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003), 59. The other true story this rationalization makes be think of is the time the elderly parents of a friend decided to euthanize their wonderful, bounding, big and joyful dog Roxie, some kind of a felicitous hybrid between a boxer and a freight train. The fact that we can find someone objectively remarkable who engaged in just about any crime or unethical act we can imagine merely proves that even the best of us fail to negotiate the challenges of life perfectly. Rationalization #53 has as many defenders as The Golden Rationalization, #1, “Everybody Does It.” Whole philosophies have been based on it, like Hedonism, which holds that personal pleasure is the highest human value. The Don knows that drugs are exactly like liquor, prostitution and gambling. Whether it is covering for someone who shows up late or altering a time sheet, misusing company time tops the list. 58 A. Bush, wake up on third base and think they’ve hit a triple. Well, too bad. Because — I believe this drug business — is gonna destroy us in the years to come. The disparity in power makes the act irresponsible and an abuse of position. Ethics is good conduct as determined by the values and customs of society. It simply wasn’t the best choice. It isn’t an excuse to stop trying to do the best we can in our own lives. Clever, but nonsense. All of the Mount Everest climbers who left a stricken colleague behind to die protested later that they were certain the next climber behind them (or the next, perhaps) would stop to help the man. First, it may be that the assumption that someone else would have taken the same unethical course is wrong, and, of course, it is just speculation anyway. Parents have a right to warp the values and education of their children. But this rationalization doesn’t make good people, and good people usually don’t rely on it. The late D.C. Mayor and lovable rogue Marion Barry earned himself a place in the Ethics Distortion Hall of Fame with his defense of his giving his blatantly unqualified girlfriend a high-paying job with the DC government. This sub-rationalization embodies the proposition that genuine unethical conduct and incivility becomes magically virtuous and praiseworthy if it is “real,” “sincere” and “unapologetic.” Utter nonsense. Your conduct, however, still reaped what it sowed. Among the rationalizations it hangs out with are 1. They cannot and do not change the nature of the conduct being apologized for. Unless, however, those virtuous entries include measures to undo the wrong on the bad side and to make any victims whole, the imagined justification is just that: imaginary. 23. Nonetheless, pointing fingers where they need to be pointed, when they need to be pointed, is inconvenient for the incompetents, miscreants, con artists, spinners and otherwise accountable parties so accused. A belief that because the chosen behavior will work for the best interest of either the individual or the organization would expect that it be carried out. 2A boils down to “He deserves it.” #65 boils down to “There’s no need to be ethical to someone more powerful than me.”. The only ethical decision is to take action. Interestingly, using the Insidious Confession is damning for the user whether it is sincere or not. An unethical act is just as unethical, whether it is performed by a saint, a hero, or a villain. These are the objections you hear from your colleagues when you try to point out an ethical problem in the way things are being done. 2. “I’m on the right side of history is nothing but the secular version of “God is on our side,” and exactly as unprovable. The greater problem with it is that it omits the concept of ethics at all. Hedonistic societies don’t work; that’s why you don’t see a lot of hippies any more, or if you do, you think of them as “inmates,” “convicts,” “incapacitated” or “the homeless.” Defending conduct as ethical because it’s natural makes as little logical sense as the converse, arguing that what isn’t natural must be wrong, otherwise known as “If God had meant us to fly, He would have given us wings.”. management scholar Archie Carroll makes a distinction between, chooses to behave unethically. They are the last thing you can afford to be without at such times. >According to deficit principle, a satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior, the social need it. They can often be identified by their mouthing of the fatuous accusation, “Haters gonna hate!”, *NOTE: In popular culture, the supposed motive for the hate is envy and jealousy, as in the juvenile rejoinder, “You’re just jealous!”, 50. His wife, First Lady Hillary Clinton, prominently defended her husband, somehow keeping her feminist creds at the same time, a neat trick. The claim that something is worth enacting, eliminating, establishing or doing is ethically and morally validates “if it saves juts one life” is aimed directly at the mushy minds of sentimentalists and the dangerously compassionate. 61 A, B,and C. The Cheater’s Rationalizations, 61. No further ‘evidence” is needed.”. “I never said I was perfect!” Betray a long-held trust? Company will protect you. It is a particularly cynical and logically thread-bare rationalization, relying on popular sentimental concepts of romance rather than any legitimate system of right and wrong. Illegal immigration is just immigration. 25C. Behavior is not REALLY legal 2. Of the four commonly held rationalizations for unethical behavior proposed by Saul Gellerman, which one do you think gets used most often? It isn’t really “So far, so good.” It is really “So far, so bad.” The conclusion that because there hasn’t been a disaster yet, the conduct is acceptable is a particularly idiotic brand of consequentialism, and a form of magical thinking. If a proposed measure is too wrong and reckless to undertake, it shouldn’t be undertaken. …and others. This argues that wrongdoing toward a party isn’t really wrong when the aggrieved party has aggrieved the avenger. This is why misbehavior by leaders and other admired role models is potentially very harmful on a large scale: by creating dissonance, it creates a downward drag on societal norms by validating unethical behavior. The words “it’s for a good cause” have been used to justify all sorts of lies, scams and mayhem. In Tessio’s case, he chose to betray an ally, friend and leader for his own benefit. Its dark genius is to confuse consequences with values. This is applied by the doer, who reasons, “I am a good and ethical person. In #15, the rationalizer wants to avoid the consequences of doing something unethical by arguing that his or her refusal to follow orders would have no practical effect: someone else would just step in and do what was demanded anyway. Why? Ethics Overview, 1/6/2021: Don’t Believe Women If They Are Married To Democrats, Helen Keller Is A Myth, Christmas…. Even if it is not, however, the unethical nature of the act is intrinsic, and exists independently of how many people know about it. One of the most seductive and simple-minded of rationalizations, The Hippie’s License flourished in the 1960’s and still haunts us today. The Royal Rationalization. They should be hard. This abdication of an ethical duty is accomplished by casting one’s lot, and gambling with the fate of another, while relying on the unpredictable quirks of moral luck. Ethical people don’t think like that. Rescuing a rotter from certain death is as admirable as rescuing an innocent child; horse-whipping a chiseling, cheating, wife-beating cannibal is still wrong. When a wrongdoer or a wrongdoer’s allies use Rationalization #51, be afraid…for yourself, and your culture. Moreover, “It’s not the first time” cuts the other way: if this conduct is happening repeatedly and with increasing frequency, that may make it worse, not more permissible. Self-validating Virtue, in which an act is judged by the perceived goodness the person doing it, rather than the other way around. The rationalization confounds law and ethics. It is a particularly unethical version of the “appeal to authority” fallacy. Everything found as a result of the torture, including the dead girl, is excluded from trial, so the serial killer has to be released. “They are out to get me/my family/my employer” might be the oldest cheating deflection of them all. 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