10.03.06
Morality and ethics in the postmodern world
Do most people live by a moral and ethical code or belief system? And if they say they do, are they accountable to it? The media cluster coverage of the downfall of U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who sent Congressional male pages e-mails tinged with sexual innuendo, seems to point to the hypocrisy of man who publicly painted himself as a social conservative and chaired a committee on the exploitation of children. (As a former House page myself, I think most pages are astute enough to see someone like Foley for the buffoon that he is.) Now of course no one is perfect, we’re human after all, but I think people can be divided into four categories: people who live by a moral/ethical code and practice it; people who say they live by a moral/ethical code but do otherwise; people who do not believe morality/ethics matter; and finally people who would prefer to behave morally and ethically but because of poverty or other desperate circumstance break the code to survive (such as immigrants to come here illegally for a better life). Of course, at one time or another we shift between those categories.
Just an observation of people in general and especially those in power.
